Description: Economist interested in all things environment, urban, and spatial.
The shipping sector has left a lot people scratching their heads – trying to figure out an equitable, cost-efficient, and efficient way to steer towards net-zero by 2050. Beyond the general complexities associated with decarbonising transportation, the shipping sector faces some further struggles. The combination of an uncertain policy landscape, competition effects, and questions surrounding technological maturity all contribute to making it one of the hardest sectors to abate.
How do we expect firms to react when faced with an increased cost of polluting? This post reflects on a recent Pluto.jl notebook I wrote, looking at how we can solve for a firm’s optimal CO 2 abatement choices in light of different government policies. The post is inspired by a long-lasting interest in understanding how to solve optimisation problems in economics programmatically. The question was then applied to a topic which I find interesting, namely, how environmental policy can affect firm choices.
The true cost of providing free parking is a lot higher than what most people may expect. This post discussed the implications of free parking using a simulation approach based on the 2006 paper by Donald Shoup, Cruising for parking .