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Optimal Global Dynamic Carbon Taxation

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  • Anthoff, David

    (ESRI)

Abstract

A necessary condition of an efficient global climate change mitigation policy is to equate marginal abatement costs across world regions to ensure use of the cheapest abatement options available. The welfare economic justification for such an approach rests on lump sum transfers between regions to compensate for any unwanted distributional consequences of such a policy. I contrast this efficient solution with a second best situation in which lump sum transfers between regions are impossible. I derive that in a dynamic setting optimal taxes are different in such a case for regions with different per capita consumption. I estimate the optimal tax rates with the integrated assessment model FUND and find that optimal mitigation is less stringent when equity is explicitly considered for widely used parameter choices of a utilitarian social welfare function.

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Bibliographic Info

Paper provided by Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI) in its series Papers with number WP278.

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Length: 31 pages
Date of creation: Feb 2009
Date of revision:
Handle: RePEc:esr:wpaper:wp278

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Keywords: Climate change;

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References

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  1. David Pearce, 2003. "The Social Cost of Carbon and its Policy Implications," Oxford Review of Economic Policy, Oxford University Press, vol. 19(3), pages 362-384.
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  4. David Anthoff & Cameron Hepburn & Richard S.J. Tol, 2006. "Equity weighting and the marginal damage costs of climate change," Working Papers FNU-121, Research unit Sustainability and Global Change, Hamburg University, revised Dec 2006.
  5. Richard Tol, 2002. "Estimates of the Damage Costs of Climate Change. Part 1: Benchmark Estimates," Environmental & Resource Economics, European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 21(1), pages 47-73, January.
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  7. Tol, Richard S. J., 2001. "Equitable cost-benefit analysis of climate change policies," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 36(1), pages 71-85, January.
  8. Shiell, Leslie, 2003. "Descriptive, prescriptive and second-best approaches to the control of global greenhouse gas emissions," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 87(7-8), pages 1431-1452, August.
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  13. Kristen A. Sheeran, 2006. "Who Should Abate Carbon Emissions? A Note," Environmental & Resource Economics, European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 35(2), pages 89-98, October.
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  16. Tol, Richard S. J., 1996. "The damage costs of climate change towards a dynamic representation," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 19(1), pages 67-90, October.
  17. P. Michael Link & Richard S.J. Tol, 2004. "Possible Economic Impacts of a Shutdown of the Thermohaline Circulation: an Application of FUND," Working Papers FNU-42, Research unit Sustainability and Global Change, Hamburg University, revised Apr 2004.
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Cited by:
  1. David Anthoff & Richard Tol, 2009. "The Impact of Climate Change on the Balanced Growth Equivalent: An Application of FUND," Environmental & Resource Economics, European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 43(3), pages 351-367, July.
  2. Narita, Daiju & Tol, Richard S. J. & Anthoff, David, 2009. "International Climate Policy and Regional Welfare Weights," Papers WP332, Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI).

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