Regional, Economic, and Environmental Implications of Dual Ethanol Technologies in Brazil
Climate change, food security, and energy efficiency have become universal challenges for global economic development and environmental conservation that demand in-depth multidisciplinary research. Biofuels have emerged as a decisive factor in the fight against global warming and air pollution from...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | en_US |
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International Input-Output Association
2013
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| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/77570 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2475-1314 |
| _version_ | 1826214678804561920 |
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| author | Guerrero Compean, Roberto Polenske, Karen R. Biderman, Ciro |
| author2 | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Urban Studies and Planning |
| author_facet | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Urban Studies and Planning Guerrero Compean, Roberto Polenske, Karen R. Biderman, Ciro |
| author_sort | Guerrero Compean, Roberto |
| collection | MIT |
| description | Climate change, food security, and energy efficiency have become universal challenges for global economic development and environmental conservation that demand in-depth multidisciplinary research. Biofuels have emerged as a decisive factor in the fight against global warming and air pollution from fossil fuel use, and they can play an important role in the development of poor as well as rich regions. In this work, we investigate the implications of biofuels for regional development in Brazil given its historic experience as an ethanol producer. We compare the environmental and economic impacts of the two predominant ethanol production techniques, in order to understand their effects on output, employment and income and also their potential to reduce the intensity of fossil fuel use and emissions of greenhouse gases. As we focus on a developing country, we also examine the distributional impacts of ethanol technology deployment, in terms of its potential contributions to poverty alleviation and the reduction of regional income inequalities. The production technologies currently used to produce ethanol differ spatially in Brazil, with a capital-intensive technology being used in the Southern regions of the country, and a traditional labor-intensive technology in the Northern regions. We take advantage of this regional variation to conduct a comparative regional analysis of ethanol production technology choice. We evaluate and compare the direct and indirect relationship between output, employment, income, energy intensity, and pollution emissions at the subnational level for the two ethanol production technologies, showing quantitatively the interrelations between the ethyl alcohol industry and the rest of the economy. We hypothesize that the adoption of capital-intensive ethanol production technology provides greater output and employment and lower environmental and energy costs than more traditional technologies and, in contrast, that the implementation of the traditional technology alleviates income inequality by increasing the income received by households in economically deprived regions. |
| first_indexed | 2024-09-23T16:09:38Z |
| format | Article |
| id | mit-1721.1/77570 |
| institution | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| language | en_US |
| last_indexed | 2024-09-23T16:09:38Z |
| publishDate | 2013 |
| publisher | International Input-Output Association |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | mit-1721.1/775702022-09-29T18:37:10Z Regional, Economic, and Environmental Implications of Dual Ethanol Technologies in Brazil Guerrero Compean, Roberto Polenske, Karen R. Biderman, Ciro Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Urban Studies and Planning Guerrero Compean, Roberto Polenske, Karen R. Biderman, Ciro Climate change, food security, and energy efficiency have become universal challenges for global economic development and environmental conservation that demand in-depth multidisciplinary research. Biofuels have emerged as a decisive factor in the fight against global warming and air pollution from fossil fuel use, and they can play an important role in the development of poor as well as rich regions. In this work, we investigate the implications of biofuels for regional development in Brazil given its historic experience as an ethanol producer. We compare the environmental and economic impacts of the two predominant ethanol production techniques, in order to understand their effects on output, employment and income and also their potential to reduce the intensity of fossil fuel use and emissions of greenhouse gases. As we focus on a developing country, we also examine the distributional impacts of ethanol technology deployment, in terms of its potential contributions to poverty alleviation and the reduction of regional income inequalities. The production technologies currently used to produce ethanol differ spatially in Brazil, with a capital-intensive technology being used in the Southern regions of the country, and a traditional labor-intensive technology in the Northern regions. We take advantage of this regional variation to conduct a comparative regional analysis of ethanol production technology choice. We evaluate and compare the direct and indirect relationship between output, employment, income, energy intensity, and pollution emissions at the subnational level for the two ethanol production technologies, showing quantitatively the interrelations between the ethyl alcohol industry and the rest of the economy. We hypothesize that the adoption of capital-intensive ethanol production technology provides greater output and employment and lower environmental and energy costs than more traditional technologies and, in contrast, that the implementation of the traditional technology alleviates income inequality by increasing the income received by households in economically deprived regions. 2013-03-06T13:53:55Z 2013-03-06T13:53:55Z 2009-06 Article http://purl.org/eprint/type/ConferencePaper http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/77570 Guerrero Compean, Roberto, et al. "Regional, Economic, and Environmental Implications of Dual Ethanol Technologies in Brazil." 17th International Input-output Conference in Sao Paulo, Brazil, July 13-17, 2009 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2475-1314 en_US http://www.iioa.org/Conference/17th-downable%20paper.htm 17th International Input Output Conference (IIOA) Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/ application/pdf International Input-Output Association MIT web domain |
| spellingShingle | Guerrero Compean, Roberto Polenske, Karen R. Biderman, Ciro Regional, Economic, and Environmental Implications of Dual Ethanol Technologies in Brazil |
| title | Regional, Economic, and Environmental Implications of Dual Ethanol Technologies in Brazil |
| title_full | Regional, Economic, and Environmental Implications of Dual Ethanol Technologies in Brazil |
| title_fullStr | Regional, Economic, and Environmental Implications of Dual Ethanol Technologies in Brazil |
| title_full_unstemmed | Regional, Economic, and Environmental Implications of Dual Ethanol Technologies in Brazil |
| title_short | Regional, Economic, and Environmental Implications of Dual Ethanol Technologies in Brazil |
| title_sort | regional economic and environmental implications of dual ethanol technologies in brazil |
| url | http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/77570 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2475-1314 |
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