Land has long been neglected in economics. That is now changing. Recently, seven teams from Australia, the European Union, and the USA have, for the first time, included land use in their computable general equilibrium models, the work horses of economic policy analysis. This book describes and critically assesses the underlying data, the methodologies used, and the first applications.
Land has long been overlooked in economics. That is now changing. A substantial part of the solution to the climate crisis may lie in growing crops for fuel and using trees for storing carbon. This book investigates the potential of these options to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, estimates the costs to the economy, and analyses the trade-offs with growing food. The first part presents new databases that are necessary to underpin policy-relevant research in the field of climate change while describing and critically assessing the underlying data, the methodologies used, and the first applications.
Together, the new data and the extended models allow for a thorough and comprehensive analysis of a land use and climate policy. This book outlines key empirical and analytical issues associated with modelling land use and land use change in the context of global climate change policy. It places special emphasis on the economy-wide competition for land and other resources, especially;
The implications of changes in land use for the cost of climate change mitigation,
Land use change as a result of mitigation, and
Feedback from changes in the global climate to land use.
By offering synthesis and evaluation of a variety of different approaches to this challenging field of research, this book will serve as a key reference for future work in the economic analysis of land use and climate change policy.
'Across the material we find three aspects in this book that we think are particularly valuable. The first is the emphasis on the economics of global scale land-based mitigation, land competition, and conventional land use opportunity costs. Second, there is material presented on the design of CGE models to capture land availability, competition, and physical characteristics. Third and finally, the authors discuss and assess deficiencies in the studies presented and identify directions for future research'.
- Jianhong Mu, Siyi Feng and Bruce A. McCarl, Texas A&M University, USA
