The Zero Emissions Oriented Region

Its Possibility and Economic Evaluation

Abstract

This article aims to significantly extend the authors' previous study that deals with the interaction between material circulation and economic activities in Aichi Prefecture, Japan. Considerably differing from the previous study, virgin and recycled goods are discriminated, recycling activities are internalized, and used data are reestimated for improving the data reliability in this paper. Applying the new model, some simulation analyses are implemented in order to examine the economic possibility of zero emissions oriented society in Aichi Prefecture. From the simulation results, one can see that prices of recycled goods should fall by 18% to 95% so as to realize the 100% of recycling. Moreover, as significant general equilibrium effects, the following results are pointed out. Economic activities of raw material producing industries are reduced being substituted by recycling activities, agricultural and food processing industries expand due to the substitution effect of price down, and finally, machinery processing and the tertiary industries also grow due to a change of commodity demand structure.