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Abstract

This paper explores whether perceptions about distributive inequity shape public support for energy transition policies. The introduction of electric vehicles (EVs) is an important policy priority for the decarbonization of road transportation. Because high sticker prices restrict EV sales, governments offer consumers EV subsidies. However, some are concerned that subsidies may favor certain groups and industries. Using a conjoint experiment, we examine the public preference for EV subsidies in the U.S. and Japan.,. In the U.S., there is a concern that EV subsidies help the high-income (i.e., individual-focused concerns), while the prevailing concern in Japan is whether they favor foreign companies which are the first movers in the EV industry (i.e., industry-focused concerns). We embed a vignette experiment within the conjoint experiment to prime the respondents with individual- and industry-focused distributional concerns. In both countries, regardless of the priming they received, our respondents favor universalistic subsidies that are inclusive of the high-income and luxury/foreign cars to subsidies that are more progressively targeted (i.e., exclusive of the rich and luxury cars) or favoring domestic firms. As such, recent EV policy discourse centering on distributional politics does not appear to reflect public opinion.

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... Different policies have been made in many countries to promote EVs, such as subsidization of EVs (Dong, 2022;He et al., 2021;Lim et al., 2022), enhancing EVs' charging infrastructure (Funke et al., 2019), and taxing on fossil fuel (Barros et al., 2021;Colgan and Hinthorn, 2021). ...
... However, despite being a key player in the global automotive industry and the secondlargest exporter of automobiles worldwide, Japan's current policies in promoting the electrification of automobiles still lag behind the leading countries such as China and the United States, leading to the overall penetration rate of EVs in Japan much lower than other leading countries. For instance, Japan's incentives for EVs, such as tax credits and subsidies, are considered relatively modest with requirements regarding factors such as weight and range [21], and the low prevalence of charging infrastructure further diminishes consumers' desire to purchase electric EV [22]. According to data provided by the Japan Next Generation Vehicle Promotion Center, as of 2021, the total number of battery electric vehicles (BEVs) in Japan was just over 150 000, while PHEVs accounted for over 170 000. ...
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... However, different presidents have different policies on this industry, and the market is greatly affected by the policy. Nowadays, Biden announced a $2.3 trillion government budget, of which $174 billion would be devoted to developing the EV industry [5]. These greatly promote the development of this industry in the US in the future. ...
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Preprint
This paper examines the macroeconomic footprint of green hydrogen diffusion in the Greek transport sector over 2030-2050, considering various scenarios with respect to which economic agent(s) undertake(s) implementation costs. In this effort, an integrated modelling framework is adopted, composed of a technology rich optimization model for integrated power generation-transportation planning for Greece, namely OSeMOSYS-PORTAGE, and a general equilibrium model that illustrates the interactions between the Greek and global economic agents, namely GTAP-Greece, coupled to the GTAP database version 11. Results indicate that when costs are fully covered by the domestic economic agents, a negative impact of low scale (~1.4% in 2050) is induced on the Greek economy, unveiled less intensely when households are the sole financers. On the contrary, in case of alleviating the costs transferred to households with an external to the economy grant, a profound expansionary effect (~2.5% in 2050) emerges, though at the expense of economy's competitiveness and extroversion.
... Battery electric vehicles from Japan were sold in the worldwide market by approximately 5% in 2020. This is due to the focus on HEVs first and multi-factor conditions, for instance, a statement by automakers that the industry might "lose up to 200,000 jobs if all cars become fully electric or powered by fuel cells" [124]. The total number of BEVs and PHEVs sold in Japan was over 200,000 units in 2009 and continues to increase, while for FCEVs, the target number is approximately 40,000 units by 2020 and about 200,000 units by 2025 [125]. ...
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... Notes 1. https://www.who.int/news/item/02-05-2018-9-out-of-10-people-worldwidebreathe-polluted-air-but-more-countries-are-taking-action. 2. https://www.c40.org/blog_posts/CAM2. 3. Subsidies could also be viewed as MBIs and could create conflicts on who should get subsidies or should subsidies be rolled back (Lim et al. 2022). We also recognize that historically both India and China have subsidized fossil fuels and electricity consumers and producers. ...
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Environmental protection efforts commonly make use of two types of government interventions: command and control policies (C&C) and market-based instruments (MBIs). While MBIs are favored for their economic efficiency, visible prices on pollution may generate political backlash. We examine whether citizens are more likely to support policies that tend to obfuscate policy costs (C&C), as opposed to MBIs, which impose visible costs. Using conjoint experiments in Beijing and New Delhi, we examine support for 'policy bundles', including both C&C policies and MBIs, aimed at limiting air pollution from vehicles. In both cities, increasing fuel taxes (a MBI) reduces policy support. However, pledging revenue usage from fuel taxes to subsidize electric cars or public transport eliminates this negative effect. Furthermore, individuals with a lower evaluation of their government respond more negatively to MBIs. MBIs may be economically efficient, but are politically difficult unless policy-makers can offset visible costs through additional measures.
... Some scholars form the opposite conclusion; they point out that public subsidies do not have a positive impact in promoting the improvement of firms' STI capability as we expect [18]. Long-term public subsidies allow NEV firms to become dependent, even inducing some companies to "seek compensation". ...
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Much research on electric mobility transitions has been descriptive or positive, rather than normative or critical, assessing the deeper ethical, justice, or moral issues that arise. To address this gap, this study qualitatively examines the ongoing transition to Nordic electric vehicles (EVs) and vehicle-to-grid (V2G) systems. It does so through the various lenses of distributive justice, procedural justice, cosmopolitan justice, and recognition justice. It asks: what are the types of injustices associated with electric mobility and V2G? In what ways do emerging patterns of electric mobility worsen socio-environmental risks or vulnerabilities? Based on original primary data collected from 257 experts across Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden, the study finds that electric mobility can erode elements of distributive justice for being accessible only to the rich, and for raising risks related to privacy, hacking, and cyberterrorism. Electric mobility may contravene aspects of procedural justice by reinforcing exclusion and elitism in national planning. It can erode cosmopolitan justice by producing negative environmental externalities, and exacerbating rural (and global) vulnerability. It may threaten recognition justice through unemployment, disruption to traditional businesses, and the entrenchment of patriarchy. Thankfully, the study also proposes a suite of policy mechanisms to address many of these concerns.
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Battery electric vehicles (BEVs) are an important pathway for decarbonizing transportation and reducing petroleum dependence. Although one barrier to adoption is the higher purchase price, advocates suggest that fuel and maintenance savings can make BEVs economical over time. To assess this empirically, this paper analyzes the five-year Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) for conventional, hybrid, and electric vehicles in 14 U.S. cities from 2011 to 2015. Results show spatial variation due to differences in state and local policies, fuel prices, insurance and maintenance costs, depreciation rates, and vehicle miles traveled. Yet in nearly all cities, the BEV's higher purchase price and rapid depreciation outweighed its fuel savings. Extensive sensitivity analyses highlight the impact of key parameters and show that both federal and state incentives were necessary for BEVs to be cost competitive. Future BEV cost competitiveness may improve if innovation and scaling lead to significantly reduced BEV purchase prices, but our analysis suggests that it will be challenging for BEVs to achieve unsubsidized cost competitiveness except in the most optimistic scenarios.
Article
This study reports the results of two meta-analyses investigating the relationships between environmental concern and both political party affiliation and political ideology. Political party affiliation was found to have a substantial association with environmental concern (ρ = 0.22), as was political ideology (ρ = 0.27). Both relationships could also be corrected for error of measurement and restriction in range, yielding corrected effect sizes of ρ’ = 0.30 and ρ’ = 0.67, respectively. There was no evidence that coded study variables moderated the relationship with political ideology. Conversely, the analyses demonstrated strong evidence that the relationship with political affiliation was moderated by the year in which the study was conducted, as well as some evidence that education level was an additional moderator. Altogether, the results also suggest that the strengthening relationship between political affiliation and environmental concern is due primarily to partisan sorting, rather than to issue polarization on environmental issues.
Book
It is widely admitted that markets are the main driving force of the economy but governments' intervention could, in some circumstances, improve on their outcomes. This book provides a structured analysis relating theoretical arguments, implementation approaches and effectiveness of industrial policy. © Pierre-André Buigues and Khalid Sekkat 2009. All rights reserved.
Article
Dropping subjects after a post-treatment manipulation check is common practice across the social sciences, presumably to restrict estimates to a subpopulation of subjects who understand the experimental prompt. We show that this practice can lead to serious bias and argue for a focus on what is revealed without discarding subjects. Generalizing results developed in Lee (2009) and Zhang and Rubin (2003) to the case of multiple treatments, we provide sharp bounds for potential outcomes among those who would pass a manipulation check regardless of treatment assignment. These bounds may have large or infinite width, implying that this inferential target is often out of reach. As an application, we replicate Press, Sagan and Valentino (2013) with a design that does not drop subjects that failed the manipulation check and show that the findings are likely stronger than originally reported. We conclude with suggestions for practice, namely corrections to the experimental design.
Article
Using historical analysis of the inclusiveness of Labor Department affirmative action regulations for African-Americans, American Indians, Asian Americans, Latinos, women, and white ethnics, this article shows that understanding variations in social movement success requires understanding policy-elite perceptions of the meanings of social movements and the groups they represent. Variation in perceived meanings along dimensions of definition, morality, or threat helps explain the speed of group inclusion, the amount of mobilization needed, and possiblity for failure. Ethnoracial minorities benefited from perceptions of definitional and moral similarity to blacks, but elites perceived women as different definitionally and white ethnics as different definitionally and morally. Policy-elite perceptions create obstacles for some groups, forcing them to struggle longer and harder for the same policy outcome.
Article
Due to the recent global trend toward stricter restrictions on both greenhouse gases emission and energy consumption, there is an emerging attention on electric vehicles (EVs). It is anticipated that proliferation of EV will be expanded rapidly in the near future. Accordingly, there is a need to analyze the consumer preferences for the EVs as the basic data for developing the relevant industries' strategies in the newly emerging market of EVs or establishing the government policies to popularize EVs. This paper analyzes the consumer preferences for the EV on the basis of the stated preference data from consumers in Korea. A conjoint method and a mixed logit model using the Bayesian approach were used to estimate the preferences of consumers. The stated preference data of the conjoint method is collected through a face-to-face survey conducted in June 2009. The consumer preferences on the key attributes that affect the choices of EV are estimated by a mixed logit model. Marginal willingness to pay is calculated to quantitatively analyze the consumer preferences on the key attributes. The results of this paper show that the consumers have greater preference for EV with swappable battery rather than unswappable battery, and for lump-sum payment rather than installment of the subsidies.
Book
This study seeks to resolve the "free trade vs. managed trade" debate. It provides innovative recommendations for US policy based on detailed and rigorous case studies of high-technology trade conflicts between the United States, Japan and Europe in aircraft, telecommunications, electronics and supercomputers.The study addresses three key issues: What trade policy should the United States adopt to support its high-technology industries? What domestic policy initiatives are necessary to realize this goal? Are new international rules needed to reduce trade conflicts over high-technology industries? Tyson, formerly Chair of the President's Council of Economic Advisers, develops a "cautious activist" policy agenda to promote US competitiveness in high-technology sectors and to strengthen international rules to encourage trade and reduce conflicts among nations.
Article
{textlessptextgreatertextless}br/textgreaterThe 20th anniversary issue of Global Environmental Change provides an important opportunity to address the core questions involved in addressing "global environmental" problems--especially those related to climate change. Climate change is a global collective-action problem since all of us face the likelihood of extremely adverse outcomes that could be reduced if many participants take expensive actions. Conventional collective-action theory predicts that these problems will not be solved unless an external authority determines appropriate actions to be taken, monitors behavior, and imposes sanctions. Debating about global efforts to solve climate-change problems, however, has yet not led to an effective global treaty. Fortunately, many activities can be undertaken by multiple units at diverse scales that cumulatively make a difference. I argue that instead of focusing only on global efforts (which are indeed a necessary part of the long-term solution), it is better to encourage polycentric efforts to reduce the risks associated with the emission of greenhouse gases. Polycentric approaches facilitate achieving benefits at multiple scales as well as experimentation and learning from experience with diverse policies.textless/ptextgreater
Causal inference in conjoint analysis: understanding multidimensional choices via stated preference experiments
  • Hainmueller
Why Is Japan Holding Back as the World Rushes towards Electric Cars, the New York Times
  • B Dooley
  • H Ueno
Dooley, B., Ueno, H., 2021 Mar 9. Why Is Japan Holding Back as the World Rushes towards Electric Cars, the New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/09/ business/electric-cars-japan.html.
Understanding the Distributional Impacts of Vehicle Policy: Who Buys New and Used Electric Vehicles?
  • E Muehlegger
  • D Rapson
Muehlegger, E., Rapson, D., 2019. Understanding the Distributional Impacts of Vehicle Policy: Who Buys New and Used Electric Vehicles?". National Center for Sustainable Transportation, UC Davis.
The Plug-In Electric Vehicle Tax Credit
  • Ben Sherlock
Sherlock, Ben, 2019 May 14. The Plug-In Electric Vehicle Tax Credit, Congressional Research Service. file:///C:/Users/user/Downloads/IF11017.pdf.