Kazuhiro Ueta

Measuring consumer preferences regarding organic labelling and the JAS label in particular

Abstract This study aims to examine whether Japanese consumers show a preference for particular types of food certification, particularly the organic Japanese Agricultural Standards (JAS) label, and how important certification of food products is compared to their freshness and source. Organic JAS certification is a certification system with government‐backed legal foundations. To consider these issues, we conducted a willingness to pay (WTP) survey for vegetables (spinach) as food products with a choice experiment (CE). The vegetables presented in the CE had four attributes: freshness, source, price, and certification. As a result, we found that Japanese consumers valued food certifications and had a WTP for them, including the JAS label. On the other hand, certification was a smaller factor than freshness and source in vegetable purchasing criteria. Freshness was the most important factor for Japanese consumers.

An Assessment of Japanese Carbon Tax Reform Using the E3MG Econometric Model

This paper analyses the potential economic and environmental effects of carbon taxation in Japan using the E3MG model, a global macroeconometric model constructed by the University of Cambridge and Cambridge Econometrics. The paper approaches the issues by considering first the impacts of the carbon tax in Japan introduced in 2012 and then the measures necessary to reduce Japans emissions in line with its Copenhagen pledge of −25% compared to 1990 levels. The results from the model suggest that FY2012 Tax Reform has only a small impact on emission levels and no significant impact on GDP and employment. The potential costs of reducing emissions to meet the 25% reduction target for 2020 are quite modest, but noticeable. GDP falls by around 1.2% compared to the baseline and employment by 0.4% compared to the baseline. But this could be offset, with some potential economic benefits, if revenues are recycled efficiently. This paper considers two revenue recycling scenarios. The most positive outcome is if revenues are used both to reduce income tax rates and to increase investment in energy efficiency. This paper shows there could be double dividend effects, if Carbon Tax Reform is properly designed.

Measuring sustainable development for the future with climate change mitigation; a case study of applying an integrated assessment model under IPCC SRES scenarios

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) described mainstreaming climate change mitigation into development choices in its Fourth Assessment Report, chapter 12 of Working Group III. It also pointed out that “few macro-indicators include measures of progress with respect to climate change” despite the needs for the inclusion. This paper tackled this point in the following ways by applying an integrated assessment model. First, this study applied shadow prices and production, endogenously obtained from the model, instead of using market prices and statistical data used in preceding studies in the economics literature. Second, this study measured forecasts of genuine saving (GS) and wealth globally up to the year 2100, while preceding studies were constrained to past and current savings and wealth. Third, this study examined changes in GS and wealth in different future scenarios on IPCC SRES (Special Report on Emissions Scenarios) with CO2 emissions constraints. Finally, the authors adopted a GS estimation methodology of shadow prices in imperfect economies by Kenneth Arrow and Partha Dasgupta, instead of that of perfect economies by Kirk Hamilton et al., on which the authors had based previous studies. This makes the indicator consistent with changes of wealth.

Green tax reform: converting implicit carbon taxes to a pure carbon tax

Global warming has become one of the most important issues in international society. Though environmental taxes and economic instruments are becoming popular among policy makers in Japan, there is little acceptance of the idea of introducing a new carbon tax to abate CO2 emissions. The Japanese tax system has implicit carbon taxes that consist of two custom duties and five excise taxes, the combined revenue of which amounts to five trillion yen per year. This article examines how much a green tax reform that converts the implicit taxes to a pure carbon tax in a revenue-neutral condition abates CO2 emissions. The results of this research are as follows. In a case in which the price elasticity of every fossil fuel is equal, the green tax reform could effectively abate CO2 emissions. Moreover, the higher the same price elasticity, the more effectively would the green tax reform abate CO2 emissions. When the price elasticities of fossil fuels are different from each other and when the price elasticity of gasoline is high, the green tax reform could not abate CO2 emissions. When the price elasticity of gasoline is relatively high, as we estimated, however, the tax reform may abate CO2 emissions, though its efficiency of abatement decreases. As a consequence, the green tax reform that converts the implicit taxes into a pure carbon tax in a revenue-neutral condition could mitigate the movement against the introduction of a carbon tax and effectively abate CO2 emissions.

Reducing Household Waste: Japan Learns from Germany

Abstract The Generation of solid waste is a serious proble, worldwide, particularly among industrialized nations where the amount of solid waste generated continues to increase in both absolute and per capita terms.1 For the most part, muncipal governments are the bodies that must grapple with the various aspects of solid waste, including waste collection, transfer, and disposal. The rising cost and decreasing availability of landfills, as well as citizen opposition to proposed landfill sites, are making disposal increasingly problematic. Waste incineration is often employed to reduce the volume of waste sent to landfills, but this practice is not without its environmental costs—including, increased air pollution and the creation of a potentially toxic end product (incinerator ash).

A study on forecasting paths of genuine savings and wealth without and with carbon dioxide constraints: development of shadow price functions

This paper has developed a method for forecasting the future paths of genuine savings (GS) with and without carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions constraints. GS calculations require shadow prices, which can be endogenously determined for variables and constraints in a model. However, in case of a ‘business as usual’ model (BAU), the shadow prices required for calculating GS without constraints show theoretically zero. This research derives the shadow prices required to measure GS for the BAU case as a function of several variables available in the optimal (economically efficient) case. This function is estimated from endogenously obtained variables from a model with environmental constraints. Subsequently, this function is used to calculate shadow prices with and without CO2 constraints, which are further employed to compute future paths of GS according to two methods applied in the papers by Arrow et al. We successfully estimated GS (or GSnt; GS with changes in population and technology) under the BAU case, however, suggest that GS (or GSnt) measures depend, to a great extent, on the time span under consideration (truncation year) for wealth accounting and the accounting methods by Arrows’ papers used for its estimation. In some cases, especially according to the methodology used by Arrow’s paper in 2004 using adjusted consumption in wealth accounting, the sign of GS (or GSnt) changes from negative to positive when changes in total factor productivity are taken into consideration. These aspects should be explored before measuring (un)sustainability of a particular path based on the GS (or GSnt) indicator.

Measuring future paths of alternative sustainability indicators: an assessment of IPCC SRES scenarios

This study measures various indicators for sustainability in this century for four scenarios of SRES (Special Report on Emissions Scenarios) published by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) to provide a comparable assessment of the scenarios. We assessed the scenarios using a model of Ramsey-type mainframe with cost models for fuel and non-fuel mineral resources, biomass and foods, and an environmental externality. The existing studies have not assessed these SRES scenarios for sustainability, but only for climate change and its policy under the scenarios using CO2 emissions and shadow prices as indicators. The significant contributions of this paper are an assessment of the scenarios using the measured future paths of various sustainability indicators and revealing that the SRES-B1 scenario is the most favorable from a sustainability perspective. The findings of this study contribute to further empirical analysis of the economics of sustainability and climate policy assessments.

Sulphur Emission Control in China: Domestic Policy and Regional Cooperative Strategy

This paper investigates the economic costs of pollution due to sulphur dioxide emissions in China and their impacts on human health and ecosystems in Northeast Asia, specifically China and Japan. We compare actual emission charging as practiced in China with the estimated domestic and regional “optimal†charges. The analysis demonstrates that, while the actual SO 2 emission charge in China has been increased, it may be still less than the estimated domestic “optimal†charge incorporating damage costs only on human health by dry deposition in a gaseous form, excluding damage costs caused by acid rain in China. Nevertheless, it would be still beneficial for Japan to financially assist China with its SO 2 reduction because the percent contribution by northeast China to deposition in Japan is increasing.

Sustainability and the measurement of future paths in genuine savings: case studies

This paper extrapolates future paths of genuine savings (GS) by using our integrated assessment model. The results with the base case (BC) indicate that both GS without population change (GS) and GS with population change (GSn) are almost positive in OECD countries in the twenty-first century (satisfying the necessary but insufficient condition for sustainability); those numbers are projected to be negative in 2100. Asia (ASIA), the Middle East and Africa (MEAF), the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe (FSEE), and the world show upward trends for both values, showing negative signs in 2010 and positive signs after 2050 (in ASIA, MEAF, and the world) and in 2100 (in FSEE). The values in Latin America (LAMR) remain negative throughout. We examine additional following three cases: demand reduction (DR), carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions reduction (CR), and population reduction (PR). The GSn results compared to the BC indicate that (1) GSn in DR is similar to that of BC, (2) GSn in PR is slightly higher than that of BC, and (3) GSn in CR is unexpectedly lower than that of BC. This GSn reduction in the CR case derives from the fact that the term for calculating resource depletion (especially resource rent, which equals the difference between price and cost) in GS and GSn increased, leading to a greater term being subtracted from gross savings. The resource price increases with the marginal price of natural gas, given the energy-source shift in reducing CO2 emissions, from cheap coal to expensive natural gas.

Environmental taxation and green fiscal reform : theory and impact

Against a backdrop of intense political interest it is more important than ever to explore the role of fiscal policy in achieving environmental sustainability. Environmental Taxation and Green Fiscal Reform skilfully explores the various ranges of environmental and energy policies needed for an environmentally sustainable future.