Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-vdxz6 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-25T11:08:39.814Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Demographic change and climate change

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 November 2019

Michael Rauscher Open the ORCID record for Michael Rauscher [Opens in a new window]
Michael Rauscher*
Affiliation:
Universität Rostock, Institut für VWL, Rostock, Germany Ifo-Institut, München, Germany
*
*Corresponding author. E-mail: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This paper uses a continuous-time overlapping-generations model with endogenous growth and pollution accumulation over time to study the link between longevity and global warming. It is seen that increasing longevity accelerates climate change in a business-as-usual scenario without climate policy. If a binding emission target is set exogenously and implemented via a cap-and-trade system, the price of emission permits is increasing in longevity. Longevity has no effect on the optimal solution of the climate problem if perfect intergenerational transfers are feasible. If these transfers are absent, the impact of longevity is ambiguous.

Keywords

climate changedemographic changeendogenous growthenvironmental policymortality and longevity
Type
Research Article
Information
Environment and Development Economics , Volume 25 , Special Issue 1: The Economics of Climate Change and Sustainability (Part B) , February 2020 , pp. 5 - 20
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2019

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Acemoglu, D (2009) Introduction to Modern Economic Growth. Princeton: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Andor, M, Schmidt, CM and Sommer, S (2018) Climate change, population ageing and public spending: evidence on individual preferences. Ecological Economics 151, 173–183.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Blanchard, OJ (1985) Debt, deficits, and finite horizons. Journal of Political Economy 93, 223–247.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bretschger, L (2013) Population growth and natural-resource scarcity: long-run development under seemingly unfavorable conditions. Scandinavian Journal of Economics 115, 722–755.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bretschger, L (2018) Greening Economy, Graying Society, 2nd Edn.Zürich: CER-ETH Press.Google Scholar
Calvo, GA and Obstfeld, M (1988) Optimal time-consistent fiscal policy with finite lifetimes. Econometrica 56, 411–432.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Carlhoff, H (2019) Carbon footprint, demography, and employment status. Thünen Series of Applied Economic Theory Working Papers 163, Rostock, Germany.Google Scholar
Dalton, M, O'Neill, B, Prskawetz, A, Jiang, L and Pitkin, J (2008) Population ageing and future carbon emissions in the United States. Energy Economics 30, 642–675.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Faruqee, H (2003) Debt, deficits, and age-specific mortality. Review of Economic Dynamics 6, 300–312.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Heijdra, BJ (2017) Foundations of Modern Macroeconomics, 3rd Edn.Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Heijdra, BJ and Romp, WE (2008) A life-cycle overlapping-generations model of the small open economy. Oxford Economic Papers 60, 88–121.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lugauer, S (2014) An estimate of the age distribution's effect on carbon dioxide emissions. Economic Inquiry 52, 914–929.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
O'Neill, BC, Dalton, M, Fuchs, R, Kiang, L, Pachauri, S and Zigova, K (2010) Global demographic trends and future carbon emissions. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA 107, 17521–17526.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Prettner, K (2013) Population aging and endogenous economic growth. Journal of Population Economics 26, 811–834.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Romer, PM (1986) Increasing returns and long-run growth. Journal of Political Economy 94, 1002–1037.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stephan, G, Müller-Fürstenberger, G and Previdoli, P (1997) Overlapping generations or infinitely lived agents: intergenerational altruism and the economics of global warming. Environmental and Resource Economics 1, 27–40.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
United Nations (2017) World Population Prospects. The 2017 Revision. Key Findings and Advance Tables. New York: United Nations.Google Scholar
Yaari, ME (1965) Uncertain lifetime, life insurance, and the theory of the consumer. Review of Economic Studies 32, 137–150.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zagheni, E (2011) The leverage of demographic dynamics on carbon dioxide emissions: does age structure matter? Demography 48, 371–399.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed