IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/qed/wpaper/1205.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

The Efficiency Of Voluntary Pollution Abatement When Countries Can Commit

Author

Listed:
  • Robin Boadway
  • Jean-Francois Tremblay

    (University of Ottawa)

  • Zhen Song

    (Queen's University)

Abstract

In this paper, we characterize a mechanism for reducing pollution emis sions in which countries, acting non-cooperatively, commit to match each others' abatement levels and may subsequently engage in emissions quota trading. The an alysis shows that the mechanism leads to efficient outcomes. The level of emissi ons is efficient, and if the matching abatements process includes a quota tradin g stage, the marginal benefits of emissions are also equalized across countries. Given the equilibrium matching rates, the initial allocation of emission quotas (before trading) reflects each country's marginal valuation for lower pollution relative to its marginal benefit from emissions. These results hold for any number of countries, in an environment where countries have different abatement technologies and different benefits from emissions, and even if the emissions of countries are imperfect substitutes in each country's damage function. In a dynamic two-period setting, the mechanism achieves both intra-temporal and inter-temporal efficiency. We extend the model by assuming that countries are voluntarily contributing to an international public good, in addition to undertaking pollution abatements, and find that the level of emissions may be efficient even without any matching abatement commitments, and the marginal benefits of emissions may be equalized across countries even without quota trading.

Suggested Citation

  • Robin Boadway & Jean-Francois Tremblay & Zhen Song, 2009. "The Efficiency Of Voluntary Pollution Abatement When Countries Can Commit," Working Paper 1205, Economics Department, Queen's University.
  • Handle: RePEc:qed:wpaper:1205
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.econ.queensu.ca/sites/econ.queensu.ca/files/wpaper/qed_wp_1205.pdf
    File Function: First version 2009
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Martin Altemeyer‐Bartscher & Dirk T. G. Rübbelke & Eytan Sheshinski, 2010. "Environmental Protection and the Private Provision of International Public Goods," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 77(308), pages 775-784, October.
    2. Guttman, Joel M, 1978. "Understanding Collective Action: Matching Behavior," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 68(2), pages 251-255, May.
    3. Yukihiro Nishimura, 2008. "A Lindahl Solution To International Emissions Trading," Working Paper 1177, Economics Department, Queen's University.
    4. Shilony, Yuval, 2000. "Diversity and ingenuity in voluntary collective action," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 16(3), pages 429-443, September.
    5. Gerber, Anke & Wichardt, Philipp C., 2009. "Providing public goods in the absence of strong institutions," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 93(3-4), pages 429-439, April.
    6. Hans Gersbach & Ralph Winkler, 2007. "On the Design of Global Refunding and Climate Change," CER-ETH Economics working paper series 07/69, CER-ETH - Center of Economic Research (CER-ETH) at ETH Zurich, revised Jul 2007.
    7. Boadway, Robin & Song, Zhen & Tremblay, Jean-Francois, 2007. "Commitment and matching contributions to public goods," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 91(9), pages 1664-1683, September.
    8. Danziger, Leif & Schnytzer, Adi, 1991. "Implementing the Lindahl voluntary-exchange mechanism," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 7(1), pages 55-64, April.
    9. Varian, Hal R., 1994. "Sequential contributions to public goods," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 53(2), pages 165-186, February.
    10. Roberts, Marc J. & Spence, Michael, 1976. "Effluent charges and licenses under uncertainty," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 5(3-4), pages 193-208.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Hans-Peter Weikard & Leo Wangler & Andreas Freytag, 2015. "Minimum Participation Rules with Heterogeneous Countries," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 62(4), pages 711-727, December.
    2. Andreas Löschel & Dirk Rübbelke, 2014. "On the Voluntary Provision of International Public Goods," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 81(322), pages 195-204, April.
    3. Molina, Chai & Akcay, Erol & Dieckmann, Ulf & Levin, Simon & Rovenskaya, Elena A., 2018. "Combating climate change with matching-commitment agreements," SocArXiv 7yc3g, Center for Open Science.
    4. Boadway, Robin & Song, Zhen & Tremblay, Jean-François, 2013. "Non-cooperative pollution control in an inter-jurisdictional setting," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 43(5), pages 783-796.
    5. Guttman, Joel M., 2013. "On the evolution of conditional cooperation," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 30(C), pages 15-34.
    6. Chen, Cuicui & Zeckhauser, Richard, 2018. "Collective action in an asymmetric world," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 158(C), pages 103-112.
    7. Buchholz Wolfgang & Heindl Peter, 2015. "Ökonomische Herausforderungen des Klimawandels," Perspektiven der Wirtschaftspolitik, De Gruyter, vol. 16(4), pages 324-350, December.
    8. Weifeng Liu, 2014. "Participation constraints of matching mechanisms," CAMA Working Papers 2014-63, Centre for Applied Macroeconomic Analysis, Crawford School of Public Policy, The Australian National University.
    9. Wolfgang Buchholz & Richard Cornes & Dirk Rübbelke, 2020. "Matching in the Kolm triangle: interiority and participation constraints of matching equilibria," Journal of Economic Studies, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 47(5), pages 1039-1050, April.
    10. Wolfgang Buchholz & Richard Cornes & Dirk Rübbelke, 2014. "Potentially Harmful International Cooperation on Global Public Good Provision," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 81(322), pages 205-223, April.
    11. Wood, Peter John, 2010. "Climate Change and Game Theory: a Mathematical Survey," Working Papers 249379, Australian National University, Centre for Climate Economics & Policy.
    12. Kotaro Kawamata & Masahide Horita, 2014. "Applying Matching Strategies in Climate Change Negotiations," Group Decision and Negotiation, Springer, vol. 23(3), pages 401-419, May.
    13. Buchholz, Wolfgang & Cornes, Richard & Rübbelke, Dirk, 2011. "Interior matching equilibria in a public good economy: An aggregative game approach," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 95(7-8), pages 639-645, August.
    14. Olivier Bos & Béatrice Roussillon & Paul Schweinzer, 2016. "Agreeing on Efficient Emissions Reduction," Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 118(4), pages 785-815, October.
    15. Feng Wang & Jian Yang & Joshua Shackman & Xin Liu, 2021. "Impact of Income Inequality on Urban Air Quality: A Game Theoretical and Empirical Study in China," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(16), pages 1-17, August.
    16. Dijkstra, Bouwe R. & Nentjes, Andries, 2020. "Pareto-Efficient Solutions for Shared Public Good Provision: Nash Bargaining versus Exchange-Matching-Lindahl," Resource and Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 61(C).
    17. Martin Altemeyer-Bartscher & Anil Markandya & Dirk T.G. Rübbelke, 2011. "The Private Provision of International Impure Public Goods: the Case of Climate Policy," Working Papers 2011-09, BC3.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Boadway, Robin & Song, Zhen & Tremblay, Jean-François, 2013. "Non-cooperative pollution control in an inter-jurisdictional setting," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 43(5), pages 783-796.
    2. Wolfgang Buchholz & Richard Cornes & Dirk Rübbelke, 2011. "Matching as a Cure for Underprovision of Voluntary Public Good Supply: Analysis and an Example," ANU Working Papers in Economics and Econometrics 2011-541, Australian National University, College of Business and Economics, School of Economics.
    3. Wolfgang Buchholz & Richard Cornes & Dirk Rübbelke, 2014. "Potentially Harmful International Cooperation on Global Public Good Provision," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 81(322), pages 205-223, April.
    4. Guttman, Joel M., 2013. "On the evolution of conditional cooperation," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 30(C), pages 15-34.
    5. Buchholz, Wolfgang & Cornes, Richard & Rübbelke, Dirk, 2011. "Interior matching equilibria in a public good economy: An aggregative game approach," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 95(7), pages 639-645.
    6. Buchholz, Wolfgang & Cornes, Richard & Rübbelke, Dirk, 2012. "Matching as a cure for underprovision of voluntary public good supply," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 117(3), pages 727-729.
    7. Gong, Ning & Grundy, Bruce D., 2014. "The design of charitable fund-raising schemes: Matching grants or seed money," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 108(C), pages 147-165.
    8. Weifeng Liu, 2014. "Participation constraints of matching mechanisms," CAMA Working Papers 2014-63, Centre for Applied Macroeconomic Analysis, Crawford School of Public Policy, The Australian National University.
    9. Andreas Löschel & Dirk Rübbelke, 2014. "On the Voluntary Provision of International Public Goods," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 81(322), pages 195-204, April.
    10. Wolfgang Buchholz & Richard Cornes & Dirk T. G. Rübbelke, 2009. "Existence and Warr Neutrality for Matching Equilibria in a Public Good Economy: An Aggregative Game Approach," CESifo Working Paper Series 2884, CESifo.
    11. Boadway, Robin & Song, Zhen & Tremblay, Jean-Francois, 2007. "Commitment and matching contributions to public goods," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 91(9), pages 1664-1683, September.
    12. Bracht, Juergen & Figuieres, Charles & Ratto, Marisa, 2008. "Relative performance of two simple incentive mechanisms in a public goods experiment," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 92(1-2), pages 54-90, February.
    13. Wolfgang Buchholz & Richard Cornes & Dirk Rübbelke, 2020. "Matching in the Kolm triangle: interiority and participation constraints of matching equilibria," Journal of Economic Studies, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 47(5), pages 1039-1050, April.
    14. Martin Altemeyer-Bartscher & Anil Markandya & Dirk T.G. Rübbelke, 2011. "The Private Provision of International Impure Public Goods: the Case of Climate Policy," Working Papers 2011-09, BC3.
    15. Wolfgang Buchholz & Alexander Haupt & Wolfgang Peters, 2013. "International Environmental Agreements, Fiscal Federalism, and Constitutional Design," Review of International Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 21(4), pages 705-718, September.
    16. repec:dau:papers:123456789/4809 is not listed on IDEAS
    17. Shilony, Yuval, 2000. "Diversity and ingenuity in voluntary collective action," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 16(3), pages 429-443, September.
    18. Josef Falkinger, 2000. "A Simple Mechanism for the Efficient Provision of Public Goods: Experimental Evidence," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 90(1), pages 247-264, March.
    19. Molina, Chai & Akcay, Erol & Dieckmann, Ulf & Levin, Simon & Rovenskaya, Elena A., 2018. "Combating climate change with matching-commitment agreements," SocArXiv 7yc3g, Center for Open Science.
    20. Saboury, Piruz & Krasteva, Silvana & Palma, Marco A., 2022. "The effect of seed money and matching gifts in fundraising: A lab experiment," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 194(C), pages 425-453.
    21. Krasteva, Silvana & Saboury, Piruz, 2021. "Informative fundraising: The signaling value of seed money and matching gifts," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 203(C).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    voluntary pollution abatement; matching commitments; emissions quota trading;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • H23 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Externalities; Redistributive Effects; Environmental Taxes and Subsidies
    • H41 - Public Economics - - Publicly Provided Goods - - - Public Goods
    • H87 - Public Economics - - Miscellaneous Issues - - - International Fiscal Issues; International Public Goods

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:qed:wpaper:1205. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    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 CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc 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 RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Mark Babcock (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/qedquca.html .

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

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.