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When to Pollute, When to Abate? Intertemporal Permit Use in the Los Angeles NOx Market

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Author Info
Stephen P. Holland
Michael Moore
Abstract

Intertemporal tradability allows an emissions market to reduce abatement costs. We study intertemporal trading of nitrogen oxides permits in the RECLAIM program in Southern California. A theoretical model captures the program's key intertemporal features: two overlapping permit cycles, two compliance cycles for facilities, and tradable permits. We characterize the competitive equilibrium; show that it is cost effective; and demonstrate the firms' incentive to delay abatement, i.e., to trade intertemporally. Using model extensions to explore market design issues, an arbitrage condition implies that the equilibrium is invariant to overlapping compliance cycles, but depends crucially on overlapping permit cycles. We empirically investigate intertemporal trading of permits using panel data on RECLAIM facilities for 1994-2006. Facilities undertake trading by using a considerable proportion of permits of the opposite cycle. We econometrically test two theoretical propositions -- delayed abatement and trading across cycles -- with a difference-in-differences estimator. The results neither contradict nor provide conclusive support of the theory.

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Paper provided by National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc in its series NBER Working Papers with number 14254.

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Date of creation: Aug 2008
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Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:14254

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L5 - Industrial Organization - - Regulation and Industrial Policy
Q5 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics

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  1. Paul L. Joskow, 2001. "California's Electricity Crisis," NBER Working Papers 8442, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  2. Paul L. Joskow & Edward Kohn, 2002. "A Quantitative Analysis of Pricing Behavior in California's Wholesale Electricity Market During Summer 2000," The Energy Journal, International Association for Energy Economics, vol. 23(4), pages 1-36.
    Other versions:
  3. Joskow, Paul L & Schmalensee, Richard & Bailey, Elizabeth M, 1998. "The Market for Sulfur Dioxide Emissions," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 88(4), pages 669-85, September. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  4. Kling, Catherine & Rubin, Jonathan, 1997. "Bankable permits for the control of environmental pollution," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 64(1), pages 101-115, April. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  5. Reimund Schwarze & Peter Zapfel, 2000. "Sulfur Allowance Trading and the Regional Clean Air Incentives Market: A Comparative Design Analysis of two Major Cap-and-Trade Permit Programs?," Environmental & Resource Economics, European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 17(3), pages 279-298, November. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  6. repec:cup:cbooks:9780521023894 is not listed on IDEAS
  7. Schennach, Susanne M., 2000. "The Economics of Pollution Permit Banking in the Context of Title IV of the 1990 Clean Air Act Amendments," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 40(3), pages 189-210, November. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  8. Lata Gangadharan, 2000. "Transaction Costs in Pollution Markets: An Empirical Study," Land Economics, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 76(4), pages 601-614. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  9. Lata Gangadharan, 2004. "Analysis of prices in tradable emission markets: an empirical study of the regional clean air incentives market in Los Angeles," Applied Economics, Taylor and Francis Journals, vol. 36(14), pages 1569-1582, August. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  10. Stavins, Robert N, 1998. "What Can We Learn from the Grand Policy Experiment? Lessons from SO2 Allowance Trading," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 12(3), pages 69-88, Summer. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  1. Meredith Fowlie & Stephen P. Holland & Erin T. Mansur, 2009. "What Do Emissions Markets Deliver and to Whom? Evidence from Southern California's NOx Trading Program," NBER Working Papers 15082, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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