| This dissertation explores three questions in environmental economics: (1) how energy subsidies can offset the adverse health effects of cold weather and energy price shocks; (2) how the value of life varies with age; and (3) whether per capita carbon dioxide emissions are converging.; I find that temperature and energy price shocks adversely affect elderly mortality. To counter these shocks, state governments provide energy subsidies through the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program. I identify the effects of program generosity on mortality by focusing on the effect of nearly 300 changes in eligibility rules over 1983--2000. I estimate that energy subsidies result in 2,300 to 3,800 fewer annual premature mortalities among the over-59 population, and the benefits are greater during cold-weather shocks and in cold states. This program costs less than {dollar}700,000 per over-59 premature mortality avoided. I explore mechanisms that could explain this mortality reduction, including the tradeoff between prescription drug and heating expenditures.; A life-cycle model in which workers choose consumption levels and job fatality risks implies that the effect of age on the value of statistical life (VSL) is ambiguous. Using novel, age-dependent fatal risk variables, we estimate age-specific hedonic wage regressions. In the year 2000 cross-section, the VSL for a worker aged 55--62 is {dollar}3.8 million---about one-third the VSL for a worker aged 35--44. Controlling for birth-year cohort effects in a minimum distance estimator flattens the age-related relationship. For the cohort-adjusted life-cycle VSL estimates, the VSL peaks at age 46 and the value of a statistical life-year peaks at age 56.; Understanding the distribution of per capita carbon dioxide (CO 2) emissions is important in considering the design of international climate change proposals. I find limited evidence of emissions convergence with an international data set over 1960--2000, and stark divergence in per capita CO2 among the U.S. states over 1960--1999. Forecasts based on a Markov chain transition matrix framework show further near-term divergence and very little long-term emissions convergence. The chapter concludes with a review of the shortcomings of environmental Kuznets curve regressions and structural models in characterizing emissions distributions. |
