IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/
MyIDEAS: Log in (now much improved!) to save this paper

Unilateral climate policy and competitiveness: The implications of differential emission pricing

Author Info

  • Christoph Böhringer

    ()

    (Department of Economics, University of Oldenburg)

  • Victoria Alexeeva-Talebi

    ()

    (Centre for European Economic Research, Mannheim)

Abstract

Unilateral emission reduction commitments raise concerns on international competitiveness and emission leakage that result in preferential regulatory treatment of domestic energy-intensive and trade-exposed industries. Our analysis illustrates the potential pitfalls of climate policy design which narrowly focuses on competitiveness concerns about energy-intensive and trade-exposed (EITE) branches. The sector-specific gains of preferential regulation in favour of these branches must be traded off against the additional burden imposed on other industries. Beyond burden shifting between industries, differential emission pricing bears the risk for substantial excess cost in emission reduction as policy concedes (too) low carbon prices to EITE industries and thereby foregoes relatively cheap abatement options in these sectors. From the perspective of global cost-effectiveness we find that differential emission pricing of EITE industries hardly reduces emission leakage since the latter is driven through robust international energy market responses to emission constraints. As a consequence the scope for efficiency compared to uniform pricing is very limited. Only towards stringent emission reduction targets will a moderate price differentiation achieve sufficient gains from leakage reduction to offset the losses of diverging marginal abatement cost.

Download Info

If you experience problems downloading a file, check if you have the proper application to view it first. In case of further problems read the IDEAS help page. Note that these files are not on the IDEAS site. Please be patient as the files may be large.

File URL: http://www.vwl.uni-oldenburg.de/download/DP_V-338_11.pdf
File Function: First version, 2011
Download Restriction: no

Paper provided by University of Oldenburg, Department of Economics in its series Working Papers with number V-338-11.

as
in new window

Length: 35 pages
Date of creation: Jun 2011
Date of revision: Jun 2011
Publication status: Published in Oldenburg Working Papers V-338-11
Handle: RePEc:old:dpaper:338
Contact details of provider: Postal:
26111 Oldenburg

Phone: +49 441 798-4107
Fax: +49 441 798-4116
Web page: http://www.vwl.uni-oldenburg.de/
Email:


More information through EDIRC

Keywords: unilateral climate policy design; leakage; competitiveness;

Find related papers by JEL classification:

  • D58 - Microeconomics - - General Equilibrium and Disequilibrium - - - Computable and Other Applied General Equilibrium Models
  • H21 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Efficiency; Optimal Taxation
  • H22 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Incidence
  • Q48 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Energy - - - Government Policy

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.:

as in new window
  1. Philippe Quirion & Damien Demailly, 2006. "CO2 abatement, competitiveness and leakage in the European cement industry under the EU ETS: grandfathering versus output-based allocation," Post-Print hal-00119449, HAL.
  2. Jean Pierre Ponssard & Neil Walker, 2008. "EU emissions trading and the cement sector: a spatial competition analysis," Climate Policy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 8(5), pages 467-493, September.
  3. Isabel Grilo & Gert Koopman, 2006. "Productivity and Microeconomic Reforms: Strengthening EU Competitiveness," Journal of Industry, Competition and Trade, Springer, vol. 6(2), pages 67-84, June.
  4. Jenkins, Rhys, 1998. "Environmental Regulation and International Competitiveness: A Review of Literature and Some European Evidence," UNU-INTECH Discussion Paper Series 01, United Nations University - INTECH.
  5. Manne, Alan S. & Barreto, Leonardo, 2004. "Learn-by-doing and carbon dioxide abatement," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 26(4), pages 621-633, July.
  6. Francis Vitek, 2009. "An Assessment of External Price Competitiveness for Mozambique," IMF Working Papers 09/165, International Monetary Fund.
  7. Mahani Zainal Abidin & Wai Heng Loke, 2008. "Revealed Comparative Advantage of Malaysian Exports: The Case for Changing Export Composition," Asian Economic Papers, MIT Press, vol. 7(3), pages 130-147, October.
  8. Adam B. Jaffe et al., 1995. "Environmental Regulation and the Competitiveness of U.S. Manufacturing: What Does the Evidence Tell Us?," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 33(1), pages 132-163, March.
  9. Matthew Gorton & Sophia Davidova & Tomas Ratinger, 2000. "The Competitiveness of Agriculture in Bulgaria and the Czech Republic Vis-à-Vis the European Union (CEEC and EU Agricultural Competitiveness)," Comparative Economic Studies, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 42(1), pages 59-86, April.
  10. Damien Demailly & Philippe Quirion, 2006. "CO2 abatement, competitiveness and leakage in the European cement industry under the EU ETS: Grandfathering vs. output-based allocation," Post-Print halshs-00639327, HAL.
  11. Guy Meunier & Jean-Pierre Ponssard, 2012. "A Sectoral Approach Balancing Global Efficiency and Equity," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 53(4), pages 533-552, December.
  12. Rossi, Vanessa, et al, 1986. "Exchange Rates, Productivity and International Competitiveness," Oxford Review of Economic Policy, Oxford University Press, vol. 2(3), pages 56-73, Autumn.
  13. Rudiger Ahrend & Donato de Rosa & William Tompson, 2007. "Russian Manufacturing and the Threat of ‘Dutch Disease': A Comparison of Competitiveness Developments in Russian and Ukrainian Industry," OECD Economics Department Working Papers 540, OECD Publishing.
  14. Lih-Jau Wang, 1995. "Environmental capital flight and pollution tax," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 5(3), pages 273-286, April.
  15. D. Demailly & Philippe Quirion, 2008. "European Emission Trading Scheme and competitiveness: A case study on the iron and steel industry," Post-Print hal-00719252, HAL.
  16. Riley, C J, 1980. " The Wage-Price Mechanism and the Long-run Effects of Fiscal and Monetary Policies under Alternative Exchange Rate Regimes," Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 82(3), pages 332-51.
  17. Karl Aiginger, 2006. "Competitiveness: From a Dangerous Obsession to a Welfare Creating Ability with Positive Externalities," Journal of Industry, Competition and Trade, Springer, vol. 6(2), pages 161-177, June.
  18. Sato, S. & Grubb, M. & Cust, J. & Chan, K. & Korppoo, A. & Ceppi, P., 2007. "Differentiation and dynamics of competitiveness impacts from the EU ETS," Cambridge Working Papers in Economics 0712, Faculty of Economics, University of Cambridge.
  19. Peltonen, Tuomas A. & Skala, Martin & Santos Rivera, Alvaro & Pula, Gabor, 2008. "Imports and profitability in the euro area manufacturing sector: the role of emerging market economies," Working Paper Series 0918, European Central Bank.
  20. Roberto Torrini, 2005. "Profit share and returns on capital stock in Italy: the role of privatisations behind the rise of the 1990s," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 19915, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
  21. Frederick L Joutz & Stephan Danninger, 2007. "What Explains Germany’s Rebounding Export Market Share?," IMF Working Papers 07/24, International Monetary Fund.
  22. David Dollar & Edward N. Wolff, 1993. "Competitiveness, Convergence, and International Specialization," MIT Press Books, The MIT Press, edition 1, volume 1, number 0262041359, December.
  23. Felder Stefan & Rutherford Thomas F., 1993. "Unilateral CO2 Reductions and Carbon Leakage: The Consequences of International Trade in Oil and Basic Materials," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 25(2), pages 162-176, September.
  24. Xinpeng Xu, 2000. "International Trade and Environmental Regulation: Time Series Evidence and Cross Section Test," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 17(3), pages 233-257, November.
  25. Antje Hildebrandt & Maria Antoinette Silgoner, 2007. "The Competitiveness Challenge: EU Member States in International Trade," Monetary Policy & the Economy, Oesterreichische Nationalbank (Austrian Central Bank), issue 4, pages 67–88.
Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

The CitEc project has not yet found citations to this item.

This item is not listed on Wikipedia, on a reading list or among the top items on IDEAS.

Access and download statistics

When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:old:dpaper:338. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: (Catharina Schramm)

If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

If references are entirely missing, you can add them using this form.

If the full references list an item that is present in RePEc, but the system did not link to it, you can help with this form.

If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

This information is provided to you by IDEAS at the Research Division of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis using RePEc data.