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Accumulative Pollution, "Clean Technology," and Policy Design

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Author Info
Toman, Michael
Withagen, Cees

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Abstract

Environmental policymakers must address the adverse effects of a number of pollutants that accumulate in the environment. Goals for the regulation of these damages often involve holding long-term emissions below a level deemed to be "dangerous,'' or outright banning of offending products or processes along with subsidization of more "green" alternatives. This paper builds upon previous studies by Keeler, Spence, and Zeckhauser (1971) and Tahvonen and Withagen (1996) in addressing the optimal long-term management of an accumulative but assimilatable pollutant through policies that restrict more damaging production processes and thereby induce more benign alternatives. Using a simple general equilibrium approach, we consider the possibility that the assimilative capacity of the environment is diminished and eventually exhausted by pollution accumulation. In this case there is a nonconvexity in the problem that gives rise to multiple potential optima, complicating the characterization of the optimal path and the determination of decentralized policies that can support an optimal outcome. In particular, environmental quality may be preserved or completely degraded in the long term. This makes the question of whether polluting processes or products should be banned more complicated and more interesting. We characterize the circumstances under which a banning policy is consistent with an intertemporally optimizing path, we investigate the sensitivity of optimal solutions to the cost of a clean backstop technology, and we discuss more generally the design of price-based and quantity-based policies for supporting an optimal solution.

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Paper provided by Resources For the Future in its series Discussion Papers with number dp-98-43.

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Date of creation: 01 Jul 1998
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This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports: References listed on IDEAS
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. Rüdiger Pethig, 1989. "Problems of Irreversibility in the Control of Persistent Pollutants," Volkswirtschaftliche Diskussionsbeitraege 04-89, Universität Siegen, Fachbereich Wirtschaftswissenschaften, Wirtschaftsinformatik und Wirtschaftsrecht. [Downloadable!]
  2. Tahvonen, Olli, 1996. "Trade with Polluting Nonrenewable Resources," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 30(1), pages 1-17, January. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  3. David Levhari & Cees Withagen, 1992. "Optimal management of the growth potential of renewable resources," Journal of Economics, Springer, vol. 56(3), pages 297-309, October. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  4. Tahvonen, Olli & Withagen, Cees, 1996. "Optimality of irreversible pollution accumulation," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 20(9-10), pages 1775-1795. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  5. Krautkraemer, Jeffrey A, 1985. "Optimal Growth, Resource Amenities, and the Preservation of Natural Environments," Review of Economic Studies, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 52(1), pages 153-70, January. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  6. Asako, Kazumi, 1980. "Economic growth and environmental pollution under the max-min principle," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 7(3), pages 157-183, September. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  7. Falk Ita & Mendelsohn Robert, 1993. "The Economics of Controlling Stock Pollutants: An Efficient Strategy for Greenhouse Gases," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 25(1), pages 76-88, July. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  8. Michael Toman & Karen Palmer, 1997. "How should an accumulative toxic substance be banned?," Environmental & Resource Economics, European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 9(1), pages 83-102, January. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  9. Weitzman, Martin L, 1974. "Prices vs. Quantities," Review of Economic Studies, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 41(4), pages 477-91, October. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  10. C. G. Plourde, 1972. "A Model of Waste Accumulation and Disposal," Canadian Journal of Economics, Canadian Economics Association, vol. 5(1), pages 119-25, February. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  11. Olli Tahvonen, 1995. "Dynamics of pollution control when damage is sensitive to the rate of pollution accumulation," Environmental & Resource Economics, European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 5(1), pages 9-27, January. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  12. Tahvonen Olli & Kuuluvainen Jari, 1993. "Economic Growth, Pollution, and Renewable Resources," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 24(2), pages 101-118, March. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  13. Tahvonen, Olli & Salo, Seppo, 1996. "Nonconvexities in Optimal Pollution Accumulation," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 31(2), pages 160-177, September. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  14. Richard F. Kosobud & Thomas A. Daly & David W. South & Kevin G. Quinn, 1994. "Tradable Cumulative CO2 Permits and Global Warming Control," The Energy Journal, International Association for Energy Economics, vol. 15(2), pages 213-232.
  15. Jon Conrad & Lars Olson, 1992. "The economics of a stock pollutant: Aldicarb on Long Island," Environmental & Resource Economics, European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 2(3), pages 245-258, May. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  16. Keeler, Emmett & Spence, Michael & Zeckhauser, Richard, 1972. "The optimal control of pollution," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 4(1), pages 19-34, February. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  17. Cropper, M. L. & Lee, Dwight R. & Pannu, Sukhraj Singh, 1979. "The optimal extinction of a renewable natural resource," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 6(4), pages 341-349, December. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  18. Cropper, M. L., 1976. "Regulating activities with catastrophic environmental effects," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 3(1), pages 1-15, June. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  19. Kydland, Finn E & Prescott, Edward C, 1977. "Rules Rather Than Discretion: The Inconsistency of Optimal Plans," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 85(3), pages 473-91, June. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  20. Pizer, William, 1997. "Prices vs. Quantities Revisited: The Case of Climate Change," Discussion Papers dp-98-02, Resources For the Future. [Downloadable!]
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(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. Fabien Prieur, 2007. "The Environmental Kuznets Curve in a World of Irreversibility," Working Papers 2007.57, Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  2. Chakravorty, Ujjayant & Magne, Bertrand & Moreaux, Michel, 2003. "From Coal to Clean Energy : Hotelling with a Limit on the Stock of Externalities," IDEI Working Papers 229, Institut d'Économie Industrielle (IDEI), Toulouse. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  3. Fischer, Carolyn & Toman, Michael & Withagen, Cees, 2002. "Optimal Investment in Clean Production Capacity," Discussion Papers dp-02-38, Resources For the Future. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  4. Conrad, Klaus, . "The Optimal Path of Energy and CO2 Taxes for Intertemporal Resource Allocation," IVS discussion paper series 602, Institut für Volkswirtschaft und Statistik (IVS), University of Mannheim. [Downloadable!]
  5. CHAKRAVORTY Ujjayant & MAGNE Bertrand & MOREAUX Michel, 2006. "A dynamic model of food and clean energy," Working Papers 06.10.203, LERNA, University of Toulouse. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  6. Chakravorty, Ujjayant & Magne, Bertrand & Moreaux, Michel, 2005. "A Hotelling Model with a Ceiling on the Stock of Pollution," IDEI Working Papers 368, Institut d'Économie Industrielle (IDEI), Toulouse. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  7. Lief K. Sandal & Stein Ivar Steinshamn & R. Quentin Grafton, 2001. ""More is Less": The Tax Effects of Ignoring Flow Externalities," Economics and Environment Network Working Papers 0103, Australian National University, Economics and Environment Network. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  8. Pierre Dupraz & Karine Latouche & Nadine Turpin, 2007. "Programmes agri-environnementaux en présence d’effets de seuil," Cahiers d'Economie et Sociologie Rurales, INRA Department of Economics, vol. 82, pages 5-32. [Downloadable!]
  9. Wilfried Rickels & Thomas Lontzek, 2008. "Optimal Global Carbon Management with Ocean Sequestration," Kiel Working Papers 1432, Kiel Institute for the World Economy. [Downloadable!]
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