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Efficiency Costs of Meeting Industry-Distributional Constraints under Environmental Permits and Taxes

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Author Info
A.L. Bovenberg
Lawrence H. Goulder
Derek J. Gurney

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Abstract

A politically realistic approach to environmental policy seems to require avoiding significant profit-losses in major pollution-related industries. The government can avoid such losses by freely allocating some emissions permits or by exempting some inframarginal emissions from a pollution tax. However, preventing profit-losses in this way involves an efficiency cost because it compels the government to forego especially efficient sources of revenue and to rely more heavily on ordinary, distortionary taxes. Using analytically and numerically solved equilibrium models, we analyze these efficiency costs. We find that when the required amount of abatement is small, the efficiency cost implied by the profits-constraint dwarfs the other efficiency costs of pollution-control. When the abatement requirement becomes more extensive, the cost of this constraint diminishes relative to the other efficiency costs. We also calculate and analyze the determinants of the gross compensation ratio' the share of pollution permits that must be freely allocated to prevent profit-losses in the targeted industries. Numerical simulations of sulfur dioxide pollution-control suggest that the Bush Administration's Clear Skies Initiative would exceed this ratio, freely allocating more permits than necessary to preserve profits.

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Paper provided by National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc in its series NBER Working Papers with number 10059.

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Date of creation: Nov 2003
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Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:10059

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Find related papers by JEL classification:
H22 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Incidence
H23 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Externalities; Redistributive Effects; Environmental Taxes and Subsidies

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Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:
  1. Bovenberg, A Lans & de Mooij, Ruud A, 1997. "Environmental Levies and Distortionary Taxation: Reply," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 87(1), pages 252-53, March. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  2. Newell, Richard & Anderson, Soren, 2003. "Prospects for Carbon Capture and Storage Technologies," Discussion Papers dp-02-68, Resources For the Future. [Downloadable!]
  3. Fullerton, Don & Metcalf, Gilbert E., 2001. "Environmental controls, scarcity rents, and pre-existing distortions," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 80(2), pages 249-267, May. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  4. Parry Ian W. H., 1995. "Pollution Taxes and Revenue Recycling," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 29(3), pages S64-S77, November. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  5. Robert S. Chirinko & Steven M. Fazzari & Andrew P. Meyer, 2002. "That Elusive Elasticity: A Long-Panel Approach To Estimating The Price Sensitivity Of Business Capital," 10th International Conference on Panel Data, Berlin, July 5-6, 2002 B3-1, International Conferences on Panel Data. [Downloadable!]
  6. Farrow, Scott, 1999. "The duality of taxes and tradable permits: A survey with applications in Central and Eastern Europe," Environment and Development Economics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 4(04), pages 519-535, October. [Downloadable!]
  7. Burtraw, Dallas & Palmer, Karen & Bharvirkar, Ranjit & Paul, Anthony, 2002. "The Effect on Asset Values of the Allocation of Carbon Dioxide Emission Allowances," Discussion Papers dp-02-15-, Resources For the Future. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  8. Carlo Carraro & Gilbert E. Metcalf, 2000. "Behavioral and Distributional Effects of Environmental Policy: Introduction," Discussion Papers Series, Department of Economics, Tufts University 0011, Department of Economics, Tufts University. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  9. A. Lans Bovenberg & Lawrence H. Goulder, 2000. "Neutralizing the Adverse Industry Impacts of CO2 Abatement Policies: What Does it Cost?," NBER Working Papers 7654, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  10. A. Lans Bovenberg & Lawrence H. Goulder, 2001. "Environmental Taxation and Regulation," NBER Working Papers 8458, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  11. Goulder, Lawrence H. & Parry, Ian W. H. & Williams III, Roberton C. & Burtraw, Dallas, 1999. "The cost-effectiveness of alternative instruments for environmental protection in a second-best setting," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 72(3), pages 329-360, June. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  12. Lawrence H. Goulder & Ian W. H. Parry & Dallas Burtraw, 1996. "Revenue-Raising vs. Other Approaches to Environmental Protection: The Critical Significance of Pre-Existing Tax Distortions," NBER Working Papers 5641, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  13. Lawrence Goulder, 1995. "Environmental taxation and the double dividend: A reader's guide," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer, vol. 2(2), pages 157-183, August. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  14. Burtraw, Dallas & Palmer, Karen & Banzhaf, H. Spencer, 2002. "Efficient Emission Fees in the U.S. Electricity Sector," Discussion Papers dp-02-45, Resources For the Future. [Downloadable!]
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  15. A. Lans Bovenberg & Lawrence H. Goulder, 2001. "Neutralizing the Adverse Industry Impacts of CO2 Abatement Policies: What Does It Cost?," NBER Chapters, in: Behavioral and Distributional Effects of Environmental Policy, pages 45-90 National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!]
  16. de Bovenberg, A Lans & Mooij, Ruud A, 1994. "Environmental Levies and Distortionary Taxation," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 84(4), pages 1085-89, September. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
Full references

Cited by:
(explanations, Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.)

  1. Bovenberg, Lans & Goulder, Lawrence H. & Jacobson, Mark R., 2006. "Costs of alternative environmental policy instruments in the presence of industry compensation requirements," Discussion Paper 127, Tilburg University, Center for Economic Research. [Downloadable!]
  2. Don Fullerton, 2008. "Distributional Effects of Environmental and Energy Policy: An Introduction," NBER Working Papers 14241, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  3. A. Lans Bovenberg & Lawrence H. Goulder & Mark R. Jacobsen, 2007. "Industry Compensation and the Costs of Alternative Environmental Policy Instruments," NBER Working Papers 13331, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  4. Burtraw, Dallas & Palmer, Karen & Kahn, Daniel, 2005. "Allocation of CO2 Emissions Allowances in the Regional Greenhouse Gas Cap-and-Trade Program," Discussion Papers dp-05-25, Resources For the Future. [Downloadable!]
  5. Parry, Ian W.H., 2006. "Are the Costs of Reducing Greenhouse Gases from Passenger Vehicles Negative?," Discussion Papers dp-06-14-rev, Resources For the Future. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  6. Parry, Ian W.H. & Goulder, Lawrence H., 2008. "Instrument Choice in Environmental Policy," Discussion Papers dp-08-07, Resources For the Future. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  7. Elizabeth Anne Wilman, 2008. "Regulating Greenhouse Gases: Emissions Intensity Limits, A Hybrid Policy, and Offsets," Working Papers 2008-19, Department of Economics, University of Calgary, revised 13 Jan 2008. [Downloadable!]
  8. Freebairn, John, 2008. "Some Distributional Issues in Greenhouse Gas Policy Design," 2008 Conference (52nd), February 5-8, 2008, Canberra, Australia 6770, Australian Agricultural and Resource Economics Society. [Downloadable!]
  9. Susana Ferreira, 2007. "Trade Policy and Natural Resource Use: The Case for a Quantitative Restriction," Environmental & Resource Economics, European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 37(2), pages 361-376, June. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  10. Yazid Dissou, 2006. "Efficiency and Sectoral Distributional Impacts of Output-Based Emissions Allowances in Canada," The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy, Berkeley Electronic Press, vol. 0(1). [Downloadable!]
  11. Isabelle Sin & Emma Brunton & Joanna Hendy & Suzi Kerr, 2005. "The likely regional impacts of an agricultural emissions policy in New Zealand: Preliminary analysis," Others 0509010, EconWPA. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  12. Miguel Rodríguez & Xavier Labandeira, 2007. "Wide and Narrow Approaches in Climate Change Policies: The Case of Spain," Working Papers 2007-39, FEDEA. [Downloadable!]
  13. Cameron Hepburn & John K.-H. Quah & Robert A. Ritz, 2008. "Emissions Trading with Profit-Neutral Permit Allocations," Economics Papers 2008-W12, Economics Group, Nuffield College, University of Oxford. [Downloadable!]
  14. Burtraw, Dallas & Evans, David A., 2008. "Tradable Rights to Emit Air Pollution," Discussion Papers dp-08-08, Resources For the Future. [Downloadable!]
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