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Undermined by adverse selection: Australia’s Direct Action abatement subsidies

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  • Paul J. Burke

    (Arndt-Corden Department of Economics, The Australian National University)

Abstract

This paper examines economic challenges faced by Australia’s Direct Action abatement subsidy scheme. Introduced in 2014, the scheme operates by reverse auction, funding projects voluntarily proposed by the private sector. Because the government cannot know true project counterfactuals, the lowest auction bids are likely to often be non-additional “anyway” projects. The scheme is hence likely to exhibit a systematic skew toward low-quality abatement. The paper presents a model of the adverse selection problem and describes the early experience with Direct Action. A discussion of a way forward is also provided.

Suggested Citation

  • Paul J. Burke, 2016. "Undermined by adverse selection: Australia’s Direct Action abatement subsidies," CCEP Working Papers 1605, Centre for Climate & Energy Policy, Crawford School of Public Policy, The Australian National University.
    • Handle: RePEc:een:ccepwp:1605
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    Cited by:

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    3. Sam Hartmann & Sebastian Thomas, 2020. "Applying Blockchain to the Australian Carbon Market," Economic Papers, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 39(2), pages 133-151, June.
    4. Liu, Xiaoyu & Cui, Qingbin, 2018. "Value of performance baseline in voluntary carbon trading under uncertainty," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 145(C), pages 468-476.
    5. Regan, Courtney M. & Connor, Jeffery D. & Summers, David M. & Settre, Claire & O’Connor, Patrick J. & Cavagnaro, Timothy R., 2020. "The influence of crediting and permanence periods on Australian forest-based carbon offset supply," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 97(C).
    6. Cheung, Grace & Davies, Peter J., 2017. "In the transformation of energy systems: what is holding Australia back?," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 109(C), pages 96-108.
    7. Baumber, Alex & Metternicht, Graciela & Cross, Rebecca & Ruoso, Laure-Elise & Cowie, Annette L. & Waters, Cathleen, 2019. "Promoting co-benefits of carbon farming in Oceania: Applying and adapting approaches and metrics from existing market-based schemes," Ecosystem Services, Elsevier, vol. 39(C).
    8. Webb, Jeremy & de Silva, H. Nadeeka & Wilson, Clevo, 2020. "The future of coal and renewable power generation in Australia: A review of market trends," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 68(C), pages 363-378.
    9. John F. Raffensperger, 2020. "A price on warming with a supply chain directed market," Papers 2003.05114, arXiv.org, revised Mar 2021.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    abatement subsidy; adverse selection; emissions; climate; Australia;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • Q58 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - Environmental Economics: Government Policy
    • Q52 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - Pollution Control Adoption and Costs; Distributional Effects; Employment Effects
    • D82 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Asymmetric and Private Information; Mechanism Design

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