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Going green by putting a price on pollution : Firm-level evidence from the EU

Author

Listed:
  • Olivier De Jonghe

    (National Bank of Belgium & Tilburg University)

  • Klaas Mulier

    (Ghent University)

  • Glenn Schepens

    (European Central Bank)

Abstract

This paper shows that, when the price of emission allowances is sufficiently high, emission trading schemes improve the emission efficiency of highly polluting firms. The efficiency gain comes from a relative decrease in emissions rather than a relative increase in operating revenue. Part of the improvement is realized via the acquisition of green firms. The size of the improvement depends on the initial allocation of free emission allowances: highly polluting firms receiving more emission allowances for free, such as firms on the carbon leakage list, have a weaker incentive to become more efficient. For identification, we exploit the tightening in EU ETS regulation in 2017, which led to a steep price increase of emission allowances and made the ETS regulation more binding for polluting firms.

Suggested Citation

  • Olivier De Jonghe & Klaas Mulier & Glenn Schepens, 2020. "Going green by putting a price on pollution : Firm-level evidence from the EU," Working Paper Research 390, National Bank of Belgium.
    • Handle: RePEc:nbb:reswpp:202010-390
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    File URL: https://www.nbb.be/en/articles/going-green-putting-price-pollution-firm-level-evidence-eu
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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Bustamante, Maria Cecilia & Zucchi, Francesca, 2024. "Dynamic carbon emission management," Working Paper Series 2885, European Central Bank.
    2. Ongena, Steven & Antoniou, Fabio & Delis, Manthos & Tsoumas, Christos, 2020. "Pollution permits and financing costs," CEPR Discussion Papers 15517, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    3. Kim, Pyung & Bae, Hyunhoe, 2022. "Do firms respond differently to the carbon pricing by industrial sector? How and why? A comparison between manufacturing and electricity generation sectors using firm-level panel data in Korea," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 162(C).
    4. Gert Bijnens & John Hutchinson & Jozef Konings & Arthur Saint Guilhem, 2021. "The interplay between green policy, electricity prices, financial constraints and jobs. Firm-level evidence," Working Paper Research 399, National Bank of Belgium.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    climate change; climate regulation; emission trading; firm behaviour;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D22 - Microeconomics - - Production and Organizations - - - Firm Behavior: Empirical Analysis
    • G34 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance - - - Mergers; Acquisitions; Restructuring; Corporate Governance
    • G38 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance - - - Government Policy and Regulation
    • Q53 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - Air Pollution; Water Pollution; Noise; Hazardous Waste; Solid Waste; Recycling
    • Q54 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - Climate; Natural Disasters and their Management; Global Warming

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