Ma, Rong

In Press
Jing Cao, Mun S Ho, Rong Ma, and Yu Zhang. In Press. “Transition from plan to market: Imperfect regulations in the electricity sector of China.” Journal of Comparative Economics. Publisher's VersionAbstract
We present evidence on the distortions that arise from imperfect regulations compared with market allocation mechanisms. Using a triple difference strategy, we evaluate the effectiveness of the Energy-Saving Generation Dispatch reform in China, which aims to allocate more generating hours to power plants with higher energy efficiency. We find that the new dispatch rule improved resource allocation within provinces compared with the previous equal-share dispatch rule. However, despite these improvements, the reform fell short of its intended goals because of the failure to strictly implement the merit order based on real-time coal consumption rates. We demonstrate how the lack of compensation for losers, technical requirements for grid stability, the existence of multiple goals, and information costs contribute to imperfect regulation.
2023
Jing Cao and Rong Ma. 2023. “Mitigating agricultural fires with carrot or stick? Evidence from China.” Journal of Development Economics, 165, October 2023, Pp. 103173. Publisher's VersionAbstract
This paper examines the effects of biomass power plants (BPPs) on farmers’ use of agricultural fires for land clearance in China from 2001 to 2019. We show that the entry of BPPs leads to a significant reduction of agricultural fires by 14%. Farmers near BPPs display stronger responses, leading to a more significant reduction in straw burning, especially during high agricultural fire seasons. The notable decline in agricultural fires is likely driven by economic incentives provided by BPPs to farmers for collecting crop straw from their land. Additionally, straw-burning bans have limited effectiveness in reducing total agricultural fires, but they appear to reduce straw burning during nighttime, when the monitoring of agricultural fires is easier. We also provide evidence that local air quality has markedly improved, resulting in substantial health benefits that surpass the social benefits of reducing carbon emissions.
2021
Jing Cao, Mun S. Ho, Rong Ma, and Fei Teng. 2021. “When carbon emission trading meets a regulated industry: Evidence from the electricity sector of China.” Journal for Public Economics, 200, August, Pp. 104470. Publisher's VersionAbstract
This paper provides retrospective firm-level evidence on the effectiveness of China’s carbon market pilots in reducing emissions in the electricity sector. We show that the carbon emission trading system (ETS) has no effect on changing coal efficiency of regulated coal- fired power plants. Although we find a significant reduction in coal consumption associated with ETS participation, this reduction was achieved by reducing electricity production. The output contraction in the treated plants is not due to their optimizing behavior but is likely driven by government decisions, because the impacts of emission permits on marginal costs are small relative to the controlled electricity prices and the reduction is associated with financial losses. In addition, we find no evidence of carbon leakage to other provinces, but a significant increase in the production of non-coal-fired power plants in the ETS regions. 
2020
Jing Cao, Mun S Ho, and Rong Ma. 2020. “Analyzing carbon pricing policies using a general equilibrium model with production parameters estimated using firm data.” Energy Economics, 92, October, Pp. 104958. Publisher's VersionAbstract

Policy simulation results of Computable General Equilibrium (CGE) models largely hinge on the choices of substitution elasticities among key input factors. Currently, most CGE models rely on the common elasticities estimated from aggregated data, such as the GTAP model elasticity parameters. Using firm level data, we apply the control function method to estimate CES production functions with capital, labor and energy inputs and find significant heterogeneity in substitution elasticities across different industries. Our capital-labor substitution elasticities are much lower than the GTAP values while our energy elasticities are higher. We then incorporate these estimated elasticities into a CGE model to simulate China's carbon pricing policies and compare with the results using GTAP parameters. Our less elastic K-L substitution lead to lower base case GDP growth, but our more elastic energy substitution lead to lower coal use and carbon emissions. In the carbon tax policy exercises, we find that our elasticities lead to easier reductions in coal use and carbon emissions.

Xueli Zhao, Xiaofang Wu, Chenghe Guan, Rong Ma, Chris P. Nielsen, and Bo Zhang. 2020. “Linking agricultural GHG emissions to the global trade network.” Earth's Future, 8, 3, Pp. e2019EF001361. Publisher's VersionAbstract
As part of the climate policy to meet the 2‐degrees Celsius (2 °C) target, actions in all economic sectors, including agriculture, are required to mitigate global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. While there has been an ever‐increasing focus on agricultural greenhouse gas (AGHG) emissions, limited attention has been paid to their economic drivers in the globalized world economy and related mitigation potentials. This paper makes a first attempt to trace AGHG emissions via global trade networks using a multi‐regional input‐output model and a complex network model. Over one third of global AGHG emissions in 2012 can be linked with products traded internationally, of which intermediate trade and final trade contribute 64.2% and 35.8%, respectively. Japan, the USA, Germany, the UK, and Hong Kong are the world's five largest net importers of embodied emissions, while Ethiopia, Australia, Pakistan, India and Argentina are the five largest net exporters. Some hunger‐afflicted developing countries in Asia and Africa are important embodied emission exporters, due to their large‐scale exports of agricultural products. Trade‐related virtual AGHG emission transfers shape a highly heterogenous network, due to the coexistence of numerous peripheral economies and a few highly‐connected hub economies. The network clustering structure is revealed by the regional integration of several trading communities, while hub economies are collectors and distributors in the global trade network, with important implications for emission mitigation. Achieving AGHG emission reduction calls for a combination of supply‐ and demand‐side policies covering the global trade network.
AGU_Full_Text
2019
Wenjie Tian, Xudong Wu, Rong Ma, and Bo Zhang. 2019. “Quantifying global CH4 and N2O footprints.” Journal of Environmental Management, 251, 1 December, Pp. 109566. Publisher's VersionAbstract
This study aims to quantify global CH4 and N2O footprints in 2012 in terms of 181 economies and 20 world regions based on the official national emission accounts from the UNFCCC database and the global multi-region input-output accounts from the EORA database. Global total CH4 and N2O emissions increased by 15.0% in 2012 compared to 1990, mainly driven by increasing demands of agricultural and energy products. Mainland China, Western Europe, the USA, Southeast Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa were identified as the largest five CH4 footprint contributors (55.6% of the global total), while Mainland China, the USA, Western Europe, Brazil and Sub-Saharan Africa as the largest N2O footprint contributors (59.2% of the global total). In most developed economies, the CH4 and N2O footprints were much higher than their emissions on the production side, but opposite picture is observed in emerging economies. 36.4% and 24.8% of the global CH4 and N2O emissions in 2012 were associated with international trade, respectively. Substantial energy-related CH4 and agricultural CH4 and N2O emissions were transferred from developed countries to developing countries. Several nations within Kyoto targets have reduced their CH4 and N2O emissions significantly between 1990 and 2012, but the generally-believed success is challenged when viewing from the consumption side. Mainland China, Southeast Asia, Sub-Saharan Africa, Brazil, Middle East and India witnessed prominent increase of CH4 and N2O footprints in the same period. The structure and spatial patterns of global CH4 and N2O footprints shed light on the role of consumption-side actions and international cooperation for future non-CO2 GHG emission reduction.
2018
Rong Ma, Bin Chen, Chenghe Guan, Jing Meng, and Bo Zhang. 2018. “Socioeconomic determinants of China’s growing CH4 emissions.” Journal of Environmental Management, 228, 15 December 2018, Pp. 103-116. Publisher's VersionAbstract
Reducing CH4 emissions is a major global challenge, owing to the world-wide rise in emissions and concentration of CH4 in the atmosphere, especially in the past decade. China has been the greatest contributor to global anthropogenic CH4 emissions for a long time, but current understanding towards its growing emissions is insufficient. This paper aims to link China's CH4 emissions during 2005–2012 to their socioeconomic determinants by combining input-output models with structural decomposition analysis from both the consumption and income perspectives. Results show that changes in household consumption and income were the leading drivers of the CH4 growth in China, while changes in efficiency remained the strongest factor offsetting CH4 emissions. After 2007, with the global financial crisis and economic stimulus plans, embodied emissions from exports plunged but those from capital formation increased rapidly. The enabled emissions in employee compensation increased steadily over time, whereas emissions induced from firms' net surplus decreased gradually, reflecting the reform on income distribution. In addition, at the sectoral level, consumption and capital formation respectively were the greatest drivers of embodied CH4 emission changes from agriculture and manufacturing, while employee compensation largely determined the enabled emission changes across all industrial sectors. The growth of CH4 emissions in China was profoundly affected by the macroeconomic situation and the changes of economic structure. Examining economic drivers of anthropogenic CH4emissions can help formulate comprehensive mitigation policies and actions associated with economic production, supply and consumption.