pollution added credit trading pact new dimensions in emissions trading abstract to date sources of hazardous toxic or otherwise harmful emissions have been regulated on a pollutant by pollutant basis environmental policies even the more advanced incentive based programs have focused on individual substances rather than on the overall environmental problem to which the substances contribute this has produced results that are less economically efficient and ecologically effective than is desirable a more comprehensive approach combines the principles of emission reduction credit trading with advances made recently in the field of environmental impact assessment to yield an advanced form of inter pollutant trading which we refer to as pollution added credit trading pact pact incorporates a method for estimating the total environmental harm generated pollution added by a facility emitting a variety of pollutants weightings that reflect relative harm are used to calculate total pollution added each facility covered by pact would receive annual allowances for total pollution added that they could discharge to the environment as with existing emissions trading programs surplus allowances could be sold and shortfalls would be covered by purchasing other facilities surplus allowances pact is more efficient than single pollutant emissions trading in that it captures differences in marginal reduction costs that exist between pollutants as well as between facilities it is more ecologically effective because it focuses on the overall environmental problem rather than on the individual pollutants that contribute to the problem

how to beat the random walk an empirical model of real exchange rates abstract an econometric model is developed for all possible bilateral real exchange rates between the united states the united kingdom germany and japan for the period february 1977 to june 1987 we extend the standard dornbusch frankel type of models using an error correction approach with an observable macro economic determinant of the long run real exchange rate for the econometric analysis we develop an efficient estimator by pooling the data for all currencies contrary to previous empirical tests on the long run behaviour of real exchange rates we find a notable and significant mean reversion component

carbon dioxide emissions and governance a nonparametric analysis for the g 20 this paper applies nonparametric estimators to examine countries carbon dioxide co2 emissions and governance relationship by using data for the time period 1996 2010 of the twenty largest economies group of twenty g 20 the dynamics of the considered relationship are analyzed six governance measures are included in our analysis voice and accountability political stability and absence of violence government effectiveness regulatory quality rule of law and control of corruption as have been defined in world governance indicators from the world bank the empirical findings reveal a nonmonotonic relationship between countries co2 emissions and the examined governance measures in addition and with respect to the environmental policy makers a significant difference on the number of governance measures influencing countries carbon dioxide emissions which is subject to countries specific regional and development variations is recorded finally the carbon dioxide emissions governance relationship is highly nonlinear and appears that countries higher governance quality does not always result to lower carbon dioxide emission levels

the new institutional economics this outstanding book presents new original contributions from some of the world s leading economists including ronald coase douglass c north masahiko aoki oliver e williamson and harold demsetz it demonstrates the extent and depth of the new institutional economics research programme which is having a worldwide impact on the economics profession

a multivariate posterior odds approach to assessing competing exchange rate models a horse race is performed among competing models of bilateral exchange rates between the united states and canada the united kingdom germany and japan the authors compute posterior odds that any of the competing models is true using standard bayes rule formulae the distinguishing feature of this horse race is that the posterior odds incorporate the information contained in the covariances among the forecast errors of competing models it is found in contrast to meese and rogoff 1983 that the random walk model is dominated by one of the dornbusch overshooting model the flexible price monetarist model or the hooper morton model for all bilateral rates for almost all of the sample the authors are able to replicate the random walk dominance results by forcing the posterior odds to ignore covariance information so that in a sense their results encompass those of earlier studies copyright 1991 by mit press

ethical influences on the evolution of the us tradable permit approach to air pollution control abstract in 1975 a novel approach to air pollution control was implemented in the usa from this rather humble beginning this approach has now been expanded rather dramatically in several different directions this paper describes this evolution shows how the design of the system has been adapted to accommodate ethical concerns and describes how the latest versions of this approach have transformed the regulatory process which spawned the approach in the first place

the assessment decentralisation and the economics of local government by almost universal agreement local government in the uk and especially its finance is in a mess after the major layfield committee of inquiry in the 1970s into local government finance after numerous other reports green papers and white papers the conservative government embarked on a radical attempt at reform firstly it tightened central control on the level of local authority spending through changes to the block grant and more recently ratecapping secondly it abolished theglc and other upper tier authorities in metropolitan areas thirdly it forced through a much wider use of tendering and subcontracting for local government services and finally it launched into a wholesale reform of local government finance based on the programme outlined in the 1986 green paper this includes centralising control over non domestic rates and replacing domestic rates with a new household tax the community charge to be paid at a flat rate by all adults

key elements related to the emissions trading for the kyoto protocol the emissions trading first proposed by the us as a concrete idea is a promising policy framework to tackle the global climate change issue it not only has its high cost efficiency flexibility but also has big potential as an instrument which is profitable for both buyers and sellers and must enforce s the compliance with the emission limitations in principle it can be the incentives for economy in transition parties to choose energy saving economic development path and also for the developing country parties to join the regime in the following phases this paper focuses on its pragmatic aspects and clarifies its merits and problems to be solved in order to probe into its possibilities to be installed some related trading scheme on environmental issues are discussed to have implications for the climate change case for climate change trading scheme concrete proposals are suggested for the emissions budget approach and borrowing in addition an idea packaging carbon taxation and emissions trading is proposed for the establishment of the domestic emissions market which guarantees the compliance of the protocol automatically these elements and proposals are expected to be useful information to clarify the points for the international negotiations with some concrete images not general ideas

market failure in incentive based regulation the case of emissions trading abstract among the existing evaluations of the us epa s emissions trading program a consensus has emerged while the program has resulted in significant cost savings it has not even approximately achieved a cost effective allocation of the control responsibility the cost savings have been smaller and the trades fewer than might have been expected at the outset of the program in this article we explore one hypothesis which purports to explain the divergence between the cost minimizing and the observed pattern of trades for nonuniformly mixed pollutants the trading process hypothesis attributes some significant proportion of this divergence to the nature of the process by which emission reduction credits are traded under the bubble policy an examination of actual bubble trades reveals that the actual trading process is sequential and bilateral and hence differs considerably from the implicit process modeled in the existing empirical studies simulations of this more realistic trading process suggest that the resulting equilibria deviate considerably from cost effective allocations of the control responsibility

an interim evaluation of sulfur dioxide emissions trading ide iv of the 1990 clean air act amendments established the first large scale long term environmental program to rely on tradable emissions permitscalled allowances in this program to control pollution this program was designed to cut acid rain by reducing sulfur dioxide so2 emissions from electric generating plants to about half their 1980 level beginning in 1995 it is of interest both as a response to an important environmental issue and as a landmark experiment in environmental policy this experiment comes at a particularly important time since emission trading is under serious consideration with strong u s backing for use to deal with global climate change by curbing emissions of carbon dioxide co2 the economic stakes in climate change surpass those in acid rain by several orders of magnitude intergovernmental panel on climate change 1996 this article summarizes the results to date of our ongoing empirical analysis of compliance costs and allowance market performance under the u s acid rain program

emissions trading and transaction costs analyzing the flaws in the discussion abstract although emissions trading lowers the costs of climate change mitigation transaction costs e g to find a trading partner may reduce its cost effectiveness some economists claim that transaction costs for joint implementation ji and clean development mechanism cdm projects will be higher than for international emissions trading iet transfers arguing that projects require advance approval whereas permit transfers can be automatically registered and checked annually however this article demonstrates the incompleteness of their views by both analyzing empirical data and discussing the theoretical conditions under which transaction costs decrease for ji and cdm and increase for iet

carbon emission performance evaluation and allocation in chinese cities abstract this paper presents a dea approach with multiple abatement factors to evaluate co2 emission performance and allocate co2 emission quotas in chinese cities we first consider the difference of marginal abatement costs among cities and construct the non radial directional distance function with multiple abatement factors the total factor co2 emission performance index and its dynamic change index are then proposed to measure co2 emission performance considering equity and efficiency we develop a composite index by the hybrid method to allocate emissions quota which considers co2 emissions as well as co2 emission performance then we conduct an empirical study using inputs and outputs dataset of 71 chinese cities in 2005 2012 chinese cities have poor energy efficiency and still have high co2 emissions the eastern region outperforms the central region and the western region performs worst whereas the dynamic co2 emission performance of the central region has the largest increase the change of co2 emission performance is driven mainly by technological advances as for the co2 emission allocation the composite index method encourages cities to reduce emissions and enhance emission performance through carbon trading market it also motivates cities with high historical emissions to reduce their emissions by improving technology when they have poor co2 emission performance

tests of the performance of reduced form exchange rate models this study analyzes the performance of reduced form exchange rate models through a number of tests of specification stability and prediction it confirms earlier tests showing that monetary models do not perform well but it finds more positive results for other models some portfoliobalance models are sufficiently stable to do better than a random walk in post sample tests the study concludes that monetary models are unduly restrictive in the way they incorporate purchasing power parity and perfect asset substitutability

carbon dioxide emissions allocation a review carbon dioxide co2 emissions allocation plays a fundamental role in determining reduction responsibility at economy level or emission permits at firm level past decades have seen the development and applications of various methods for co2 emissions allocation this paper provides a literature review of co2 emissions allocation with emphasis on the evolution of allocation methods used it begins with a summary of the most popular allocation principles and criteria that lay a foundation for the development of allocation methods we then classify the existing allocation methods into four groups namely indicator optimization game theoretic and hybrid approaches the main features and findings of past studies are identified and summarized while the fairness principle prevails in earlier studies the efficiency principle has been found to receive increasing attention recently we also present a comparison of the empirical results based on ten popular indicator methods to show how indicator choice affects the allocation results issues related to selecting appropriate methods in co2 emissions allocation are finally discussed further research may be carried out to strike a balance between fairness and efficiency so that the allocation results become more widely acceptable and economically feasible

development of marginal abatement cost curves for the building sector in armenia and georgia abstract armenia and georgia are taking climate change agenda seriously and contributing to efforts for mitigating global climate change through various ways including preparation of low carbon development strategies for their future economic growth the improvement of energy efficiency is one of the key elements of the low carbon development strategies this study develops a methodology to estimate marginal abatement cost mac curve for energy efficiency measures and apply in the building sector in both countries the study finds that among the various energy efficiency measures considered the replacement of energy inefficient light bulbs i e incandescent lamps with efficient light bulbs is the most cost effective measure in saving energy and reducing greenhouse gas ghg emissions from the building sector most energy efficiency improvement options considered in the study would produce net economic benefits even if the value of reduced carbon is not taken into account while the mac analysis conducted demonstrates the cost competitiveness of various energy efficiency measures in armenia and georgia the study also offers a caution to policy makers to have supplemental analysis before prioritizing the implementation of these measures or introducing policies to support them

quantities qualities and multiple public services in the tiebout model abstract this paper introduces a new more realistic characterization of local public services this characterization fits education parks and streets none of which are a pure samuelsonian good it is shown that tiebout s hypothesis holds for this new type of services provided correct user charges are adopted introducing several local services considerably affects the results the paper emphasizes the difference in tastes with regard to quality as opposed to quantity earlier literature is shown to apply to the role of quality and ignores the role of quantity the effect of the latter makes mixed communities more efficient than segregated ones it is shown that efficient allocation with mixed communities is an equilibrium in a costless mobility tiebout type setting

new directions in emissions trading the potential contribution of new institutional economics abstract once an arcane topic even among environmental economists emissions trading systems have substantially increased during this past decade in the usa moreover the implementation of these systems has necessitated increased involvement of professionals in many fields besides economics this paper reviews the practical experience of the six major types of emissions trading systems focusing on credit market development participation and results including transaction costs five more recent applications of emissions trading also are considered as well as the possibility of inter pollutant trading while inter pollutant trading has been successfully used for chlorofluorocarbons cfcs the applicability of this experience is probably very limited additionally it would be highly premature to attempt an evaluation of these newer emissions trading systems some of which have yet to be even partially implemented in order to improve these latter and future programs the paper considers the potential contribution of the new institutional economics nie to emissions trading the nie is used to develop theoretical insights and a series of predictions about the performance of a range of emissions trading systems

an emission saved is an emission earned an empirical study of emission banking for light duty vehicle manufacturers abstract this paper presents results of an empirical study of emission banking for light duty vehicle manufacturers an intertemporal model of manufacturers choices is combined with econometrically estimated abatement cost functions to simulate the cost savings and emission effects of an averaging trading and banking marketable permit system relative to command and control regulations while the cost savings of such a system are estimated to be modest the intertemporal emission effects may be sizable the sensitivity of the results to discount rates abatement cost functions and model specifications is also explored

currency fluctuations in the post bretton woods era the international monetary landscape that has emerged since the felling of bretton woods is characterized by a hybrid exchange rate system that lies somewhere between the textbook polar cases of a gold standard and a pure float this system has relatively flexible exchange rates between major countries active central bank intervention in the market for the major currencies and predominantly fixed exchange rates relative to the dollar or to some basket of currencies for less developed countries and newly industrializing nations the majority of research on currency markets since the early 1970s has focused on the characteristics of flexible exchange rates under this hybrid regime my thesis is that this research has been unsuccessful the proportion of monthly or quarterly exchange rate changes that current models can explain is essentially zero even after the fact forecasts that use actual values instead of forecasted values of the explanatory variables cannot explain major currency movements over the post bretton woods era this result is quite surprising since exchange rate changes would be entirely unpredictable only in very special cases of the theoretical models discussed as the discussion below will argue it is not a general implication of market efficiency that exchange rates follow a random walk process 1

positive freedom markets and the welfare state the comparative merits of market and certain distinguished non market resource allocation mechanisms have continually been at the centre of debate in economics and political philosophy doubtless it will remain there for here one faces the grandest of human concerns embracing as it does issues bearing on liberty and welfare the aspirations of people their potential and re alized capabilities and the fulfillment of their needs it enables us to see individuals in a social context to ask about the possible features of a civil society the obligations that people may have to themselves to one another and to agencies then again we are able to enquire into the obli gations that agencies have to people and to one another the extent to which responsibility needs to be delegated among offices and persons the role that dispersed information may play in an swers to these and so on the debate is central to any discussion of the kind of society we ought to aspire to be members of

carbon taxes and joint implementation an applied general equilibrium analysis for germany and india germany has committed itself to reducing its carbon emissions by 25 percent in 2005 as compared to 1990 emission levels to achieve this goal the government has recently launched an environmental tax reform which entails a continuous increase in energy taxes in conjunction with a revenue neutral cut in non wage labor costs this policy is supposed to yield a double dividend reducing both the problem of global warming and high unemployment rates in addition to domestic actions international treaties on climate protection allow for the supplementary use of flexible instruments to exploit cheaper emission reduction possibilities elsewhere one concrete option for germany would be to enter joint implementation with developing countries such as india where germany pays emission reduction abroad rather than meeting its reduction target solely by domestic action in this paper we investigate whether an environmental tax reform cum joint implementation ji provides employment and overall efficiency gains as compared to an environmental tax reform stand alone etr we address this question in the framework of a large scale general equilibrium model for germany and india where germany may undertake joint implementation with the indian electricity sector our main finding is that joint implementation offsets adverse effects of carbon emission constraints on the german economy ji significantly lowers the level of carbon taxes and thus reduces the total costs of abatement as well as negative effects on labor demand in addition ji triggers direct investment demand for energy efficient power plants produced in germany this provides positive employment effects and additional income for germany for india joint implementation equips its electricity industry with scarce capital goods leading to a more efficient power production with lower electricity prices for the economy and substantial welfare gains

a re assessment of the relationship between real exchange rates and real interest rates 1974 1990 abstract this paper uses cointegration techniques and error correction models to re examine the link between real exchange rates and real interest rate differentials the results show that real exchange rates and real interest rates are nonstationary however they are not cointegrated with each other on the other hand the dynamic models indicate that there might be a long run relationship between these variables but this cannot be verified the final conclusion is that there is little empirical evidence in support of a systematic relationship and this result is robust across exchange rates time periods and measures of expected inflation

revealing the political decision toward chinese carbon abatement based on equity and efficiency criteria abstract china s economic reform over the past 30 years has allowed the free market to drive economic development however government still plays a key role in the energy sector by allocating energy conservation and emissions abatement how does the government make an equity decision as a tradeoff to market efficiency this is an unanswered question the purpose of this paper is to illustrate the government s preference toward equity and efficiency using the provincial level co 2 intensity allocation data we investigate the political decision that the government made based on the equity and efficiency criteria we find that the equity index plays a more important role than the efficiency index in determining the co 2 intensity target in addition political factors such as social stability are found to be important factors

reducing conflicts between climate policy and energy policy in the us the important role of the states the absence of us national action on global climate change policy has prompted initiatives by the us congress cities states and regions toward what is likely to become a long term collaborative effort to harmonize national energy and climate policies this upward evolution in the face of a reluctant administration is historically consistent with the development of national legislation on other environmental and social issues in the us at the heart of this movement is the need to resolve conflicts between high intensity use of low cost fossil energy supplies and the dominating impact of carbon dioxide emissions on global climate change us states are among the largest carbon dioxide emitters in the world and play a critical role in supplying and transforming energy as well as consuming it for economic advantage state governments are also likely to have to shoulder some of the cost of potentially extensive climate damages and bear the brunt of the cost of implementing future federal mandates as a result many are taking proactive stances on the development of climate mitigation policy to prepare for accelerate and or guide national policy as us states show leadership on addressing greenhouse gas emissions they also play an important role in forging policies and measures that reduce economic conflict between energy and climate goals a number have launched or completed greenhouse gas mitigation plans and other major policies in the past few years that address these conflicts through 1 finding ways to reduce mitigation costs including the use of incentive based policy instruments 2 promoting an open and democratic policy process that includes major stakeholders 3 promoting equity across socioeconomic groups regions and generations and 4 promoting interregional cooperation the results are promising and suggest that the state arena for climate and energy policy is evolving quickly and constructively toward alternatives that reduce conflict regional efforts are also unfolding along with greater congressional attention to the lessons learned and commitments made by sub federal actions in the next few years many national energy and climate conflicts are likely to be tested and addressed by states among these pennsylvania is likely to be an important player due to its high profile of energy production and potential for leadership

indirect tax evasion and product efficiency though a number of papers have considered the issues of income tax evasion few have considered indirect tax evasion one of the exceptions is a paper which considers the very special case of a risk averse monopolist producer the present paper addresses the issue of indirect tax evasion in competitive markets evasion in such a market is shown to be associated with production inefficiency the results also suggest that laffer type curves could arise due to evasion

an ecological footprint approach to external debt relief abstract this paper applies martinez alier s environ values 2 1993 97 ecological debt concept to the problem of debt relief exploring the possibility of compensatory transfers from rich to poor countries based on existing ecological balances i employ recent estimates on ecological footprints and ecosystem values to estimate the ecological debt to be distributed among eligible transfer recipients all less developed countries ldcs the results provide a policy criterion for transfers in the event that future circumstances make large scale international debt relief compulsory the study probably underestimates the appropriate transfer amounts because of conservative assumptions regarding the environmental values and the size of the north s ecological debt in physical terms

the market for tradable renewable energy credits abstract as states seek to foster the development of renewable energy resources some have introduced renewable portfolio standards rpss which require retailers of electricity to derive a specified amount of their energy supply from renewable energy resources rpss in texas arizona wisconsin and nevada allow for or require the use of tradable renewable energy credits the price of such credits is expected to reflect the cost premium for generating electricity from renewable resources relative to the market price of conventionally generated electricity using the market to trade renewable energy credits exposes buyers and sellers to risks of imperfect information poor performance and opportunism these risks can be managed through contractual arrangements and regulatory requirements pertaining to property rights in credits pricing term of the contract and assurance of performance

clubs local public goods and transportation models a synthesis abstract clubs local public goods and transportation models are analyzed within a unified model the emphasis is on the derivation of optimal allocation pricing and the size of the sharing group we derive the conditions under which optimal prices will yield surplus or deficit as well as those under which competitive provision will be efficient given heterogeneous tastes we prove that segregation according to tastes is generally efficient although several cases where this result does not hold are also discussed we show that the existing literature is unnecessarily restrictive and that the unified approach suggested here considerably extends the existing analysis of clubs local public goods and the transportation problems

designing organizations for trading pollution rights regulators and academicians have recently become interested in using a marketable permits program as a new way to control aggregate pollution emissions our research focuses on choosing a permit trading mechanism that is both economically efficient and politically viable we consider an organized trading process and a revenue neutral auction both of which involve an initial allocation of permits based on past history each is tested in a competitive and in a non competitive environment to determine which mechanism performs best the results of our research suggest that overall the organized trading process outperforms the revenue neutral auction

empirical models of the exchange rate separating the wheat from the chaff various popular exchange rate models a standard monetary model a portfolio balance model and sticky price models are estimated and evaluated using u s canadian data for the 1970s nonnested hypothesis tests demonstrate that none are correctly specified the data suggest 1 the exchange rate persistence observed is not fully explained by any of the models 2 the small durbin watson statistics indicate longer lags are required 3 the current account is a useful explanatory variable 4 the portfolio balance model fits the data well but has potentially serious problems measuring the stock of foreign assets this abstract was borrowed from another version of this item

carbon prices were they an obstacle to the launching of emission abatement projects in spain in the kyoto protocol period abstract the future of the carbon market approach under the united nations framework convention on climate change unfccc is uncertain however further development of carbon markets is expected this paper estimates the average carbon price of the carbon emission permits cop approved units acquired by the spanish government and also a more realistic figure for the average carbon cost of the aforesaid emission permits this is very useful for evaluating and comparing different carbon prices and markets in addition the paper contributes to the existing literature by providing a deeper understanding of the flow of emission permits between the european union emission trading scheme eu ets and the emission trading scheme ets under the kyoto protocol the main conclusions are that the estimated carbon price and cost are both lower than other reported prices and costs this may go some way towards explaining why the government preferred to use the flexibility mechanisms and acquire an especially large number of cop approved units mainly assigned amount units aaus through bilateral transactions with other annex b countries instead of launching actual greenhouse gas ghg abatement projects in the country moreover more transparency is needed in regard to bilateral transactions of aaus between the spanish government and other annex b seller countries

economic prescriptions for environmental problems how the patient followed the doctor s orders o ne of the dangers with ivory tower theorizing is that it is easy to lose sight of the actual set of problems which need to be solved and the range of potential solutions as one who frequently engages in this exercise i can attest to this fact in my view this loss of sight has become increasingly evident in the theoretical structure underlying environmental economics which often emphasizes elegance at the expense of realism in this paper i will argue that both normative and positive theorizing could greatly benefit from a careful examination of the results of recent innovative approaches to environmental management the particular set of policies examined here involves two tools which have received widespread support from the economics community marketable permits and emission charges pigou 1932 dales 1968 kneese and schultze 1975 both tools represent ways to induce businesses to search for lower cost methods of achieving environmental standards they stand in stark contrast to the predominant command and control approach in which a regulator specifies the technology a firm must use to comply with regulations under highly restrictive conditions it can be shown that both of the economic approaches share the desirable feature that any gains in environmental quality will be obtained at the lowest possible cost baumol and oates 1975 until the 1960s these tools only existed on blackboards and in academic journals as products of the fertile imaginations of academics however some countries have recently begun to explore using these tools as part of a broader strategy for managing environmental problems

international equity and differentiation in global warming policy ne of the major obstacles to reaching a comprehensive agreement on global warming is the setting of greenhouse gas emission reduction targets for individual countries long standing tensions between industrialized and developing countries have raised the issue of equity in burden sharing moreover individual industrialized nations have pleaded special circumstances and have sought differentiation in their obligations this paper analyzes alternative rules for distributing tradable carbon dioxide emissions permits a non linear programming model which distinguishes between allocation based and outcome based rules is used to analyze the relative welfare outcomes the model is applied to the world body of nations and yields several important policy implications

customs related transaction costs firm size and international trade intensity customs are generally perceived as a time consuming impediment to international trade however few studies have empirically examined the determinants and the impact of this type of government imposed transaction costs this paper analyses the role of firm size as a determinant of customs related transaction costs as well as the effect of firm size on the relationship between these costs and the international trade intensity of firms the results of this study indicate that customs related transaction costs repress international trade activities of firms even at low levels of these costs the paper identifies transaction related economies of scale simplified customs procedures and advanced information and communication technology as main determinants of customs related transaction costs it is shown that when these factors are taken into account firm size has no effect on customs related transaction costs policy implications are considered for firm strategy and public policy

geopolitics and the dollar abstract in this paper coefficients relating the real dollar exchange rates of 11 industrialized democracies to us defense expenditures are found to be a function of geopolitical national security variables these findings support the hypothesis that safe haven investment decisions have affected real dollar exchange rates over the 1973 86 period

transaction costs and tradeable permits abstract tradeable permit systems are at the center of current interest and activity in market based reforms of environmental policy because these systems can offer significant advantages over conventional approaches to pollution control unfortunately claims made for their relative cost effectiveness have often been exaggerated transaction costs which may be significant in these markets reduce trading levels and increase abatement costs in some cases equilibrium permit allocations and hence aggregate control costs are sensitive to initial permit distributions providing an efficiency justification for politicians typical focus on initial allocations

a theory of yardstick competition in the typical regulatory scheme a franchised monopoly has little incentive to reduce costs this article proposes a mechanism in which the price the regulatedfirm receives depends on the costs of identical firms in equilibrium each firm chooses a socially efficient level of cost reduction the mechanism generalizes to cover heterogeneous firms with observable differences medicare s prospective reimbursement of hospitals by using diagnostically related groups is a scheme very similar to the one outlined here

joint implementation and cost effectiveness under the framework convention on climate change abstract the concept of joint implementation is the subject of ongoing negotiations under the framework convention on climate change proponents argue that allowing joint implementation of the objectives of the convention will increase the cost effectiveness with which those objectives are achieved opponents argue that allowing trade in carbon emission credits will reduce the incentive for domestic greenhouse gas emissions reductions and may undermine the commitments of the developed nations to take the lead in achieving climate stabilization this paper examines the argument for joint implementation from the standpoint of cost effectiveness it addresses the determination of incremental costs for abatement options and the assessment of cost effectiveness under complex systemic conditions using national greenhouse gas abatement costing studies from four different nations two developed nations on economy in transition and one developing nation the paper examines both the general claim for cost effectiveness of joint implementation and the implicit assumption that emissions reductions will be easier and cheaper in developing nations and economies in transition than they are in developed countries the results indicate firstly that benefits from joint implementation may be highly dependent on the level of associated transaction costs and secondly that greenhouse gas emission reductions may be considerably cheaper for some developed countries than they are for developing countries the paper stresses the need for well developed methodological guidelines under which both cost and cost effectiveness can be assessed and points to the dangers inherent in allowing ad hoc trading in emissions credits by a heterogenous community of private investors

selecting permit allocation rules for agricultural pollution control a bargaining solution abstract one of the primary justifications for using transferable permits for pollution control is that they achieve a given level of emission reduction at the lowest cost although the initial allocation of pollution permits may have no impact in terms of efficiency it does have a significant impact on equity in this paper we examine a variety of permit allocation rules for a small catchment in south west england an asymmetric nash bargaining framework is employed to characterise agents co operative behaviour and to explain their likely preferences over permit allocation rules the results indicate that the preferred allocation scheme depends upon the relative bargaining power of the agents furthermore some potential links between ex ante and ex post equity criteria were also discussed

the evolution of tax structures certain themes recur throughout this paper the traditional account of the evolution of tax structures through the interaction of increasing efficiency and the claims of special interests plays a role but is not the whole story different taxes create tradeoffs between the costs of administration and compliance specification of these costs creates a framework in which long term trends like the growth and centralization of revenues and the increasing dependence on direct taxation can be understood this framework applies to observable collective decisions to alter tax structures uncertainty about ultimate incidence plays a major role in such decisions it also applies to the decentralized context of adjustment and resistance this framework can be used to investigate the extent of redistribution within tax systems and of the requirement of frequent reforms to sustain redistribution against resistance the simultaneous consideration of economic and political aspects of taxation can only improve future research

the political economy of pollution markets historical lessons for modern energy and climate planners this article explores some of the central economic and political problems with the use of tradable permits to solve environmental problems drawing from transaction cost economics political economy and market theory it does so by looking at the history of three programs for curbing pollution in the united states the clean air act the leaded gasoline phase out and water permits in wisconsin the article begins by briefly summarizing the history of each of these programs before looking at a host of challenges related to political compromises in program design transaction costs spatial distortions such as geographic sensitivity and wrong way trading of credits temporal distortions such as the episodic nature of pollution and volatility of market prices and market abuses these concerns are raised with an eye for how historical experience may inform the current debate about how to design effective market mechanisms to respond to climate change and other forms of energy related environmental degradation

exchange rates and investment in united states industry the path of the dollar has significantly influenced investment activity in u s industry the effects of both exchange rate levels and exchange rate volatility have been more pronounced in the 1980s than in the 1970s although aggregate investment data mask some of these relationships the effects of exchange rates on investment are most pronounced in the disaggregate data for manufacturing durable goods sectors and nonmanufacturing sectors these relationships also have changed over time in contrast to the conventional wisdom in the 1980s real dollar depreciations appreciations were likely to be associated with investment contractions expansions copyright 1993 by mit press

econometric approaches to empirical models of exchange rate determination abstract this paper identifies four principal econometric approaches to the estimation and testing of asset market models of exchange rate determination the traditional static reduced form approach the error correction and co integration dynamic reduced form approaches the simultaneous equations approach and large scale multi equation macroeconometric simulation models each of these econometric approaches is evaluated with respect to its theoretical validity and the comparative properties of the empirical results obtained this leads to the conclusion that although there may be little to choose between the different theoretical exchange rate models there may be grounds for favouring a multi equation simultaneous estimation procedure for this class of models

on empirical exchange rate models what does a rejection of the symmetry restriction on short run interest rates mean abstract the purpose of this paper is to interpret the well documented rejection of reduced form symmetry restrictions on short run interest rates and to show that such a rejection implies a rejection of rational expectations re and or uncovered interest rate parity uip the paper also shows that if this rejection is due to failure of uip it cannot be explained by the presence of a standard risk premium in order to provide for well specified alternatives the paper explores the reduced form implications of imperfect capital mobility and a recent alternative to re called the theories consistent expectations framework

exchange rates and fundamental variables a semi parametric analysis of binary choice this study is motivated by the dearth of models that provide good out of sample fit for exchange rates that is current models of exchange rate behaviour are poor predictors of subsequent currency movements an attempt is made to determine if the relationship between exchange rates and fundamental variables can help explain the more extreme exchange rate movements distributional switches models are developed that relate fundamental economic variables to the resulting estimates based on the mixture of normal probability distributions parametric estimation procedures logit and probit are compared with a semi parametric technique maximum score estimation mscore which is relatively untested in the field of finance the fundamental variables of these models include information on trade balances money supply changes interest rate changes real economic growth relative inflation rates and changes in stock market indexes classification results favour mscore implications of results and improvements

forecast performance of exchange rate models revisited this paper re evaluates the performance of reduced form exchange rate models by updating the messe rogoff study 1983 this paper confirms earlier tests showing that simple monetary models do not perform well but it finds more positive results for other monetary models that incorporate more dynamic econometric specifications a simple error correction monetary model out forecasts a random walk almost half of the time

the allocation of co2 emissions as a claims problem abstract in the context of multilateral negotiations on climate change this paper proposes to use the claims approach as a reasonable and practicable alternative in order to allocate the admissible co2 emissions per region the proposed methodology entails analyze the application of a broad group of theoretical solutions through the establishment of equity and stability criteria to this regard the empirical analyzing combines several co2 world endowments from meinshausen et al 2009 together with claims forecasts associated with the rcp representative concentration pathways scenarios the results obtained indicate that the constrained equal awards and minimal solutions are clearly equity sensitive given that the co2 emission reduction imposed by the constrained equal awards solution on asia and the oecd are very important and considering the better balance between equity and proportionality associated with the min solution it could be that this latter solution would be the most practicable and acceptable

equity efficiency trade off in china s energy capping policy abstract as a part of the transition to a sustainable economy china has set a cap on primary energy consumption for the first time of 5 0 billion tonnes of standard coal equivalent by 2020 however there is a debate on the cap feasibility and failure to adequately address the underlying equity efficiency trade off which hampers achievement this paper identifies some key challenges ahead including the coal dominant energy mix declining financial support inconsistent central local goals rising costs of energy saving measures and quality of energy statistical data by quantifying the preference of each providence toward equity based or efficiency based allocation schemes the great disparity among provinces is revealed and the equity efficiency trade off relationship is confirmed developing regions primarily located in central and western areas tend to favor equity based disaggregating schemes contrarily developed coastal provinces strongly favor efficiency based schemes the present national disaggregation schemes are mainly based on historical energy consumption but disregard the provincial development gap and efficiency factors we conclude that this ambitious goal is likely within reach but increased efforts and flexible instruments are needed

transaction costs risk aversion and the choice of contractual arrangements publisher summary this chapter discusses transaction costs risk aversion and the choice of contractual arrangements every transaction involves a contract and the transactions conducted in the marketplace entail outright or partial transfers of property rights among individual contracting parties the contractual arrangements through which these transfers are negotiated are several and varied the chapter presents a theory that states that economic efficiency is the same under various land tenure arrangements subject to the constraint of private property rights although transaction costs exist in the real world the theory enables the understanding of much of the farming behavior however the presence of a variety of contractual arrangements under the same constraint of competition poses the question of the choice of these arrangements if a firm can increase efficiency in production by employing productive resources of more than one resource owner a contract to combine the resources will be obtained the formation of the contract involves partial transfers of property rights in one form or another such as leasing hiring or mortgaging

optimal taxation and optimal tax systems the theory of optimal taxation has for the pas two decades been the reigning normative approach of taxation this paper argues that in its current state optimal tax theory is incomplete as a guide to action concerning many critical issues in tax policy it is incomplete because it has not yet come to terms with taxation as a system of coercively collecting revenues from individuals who will tend to resist the coercive nature of collection taxes implies that the resource cost of implementing a tax system have been and will continue to be a critical determinant of appropriate tax policy the paper first presents the three cornerstone propositions of optimal tax theory and then it discusses the influence of these propositions on recent tax policy developments it concludes by sketching an alternative to optimal taxation called the theory of optimal tax systems which embraces the insights of optimal taxation but also considers the technology of raising taxes and the constraints placed upon tax policy by that technology the optimal tax systems perspective is shown to shed light on the choice of tax instruments the problem of tax evasion and the appropriate tax treatment of capital income this abstract was borrowed from another version of this item

independence of allocative efficiency from distribution in the theory of public goods when is the pareto optimal amount of public goods independent of income distribution subject to some regularity conditions the answer is when preferences of every individual i can be represented by a utility function of the form u x i y a y x i b i y where x i is i s consumption of private goods and y is the amount of public goods

scope and limits of the market mechanism in environmental management abstract this paper tries to evaluate the role of the market mechanism in environmental management and warns against reductionist views on the causes and remedies of environmental damages according to some of these views proper pricing of the environment and extensive use of market mechanisms in environmental management would solve environmental problems but various conditions tell against such simplifications namely the complex causality behind environmental damages the complexity of the functions and values of nature as well as limitations of the market mechanism in coping with the functions and services of nature several of those limitations the difficulties of defining and enforcing property rights to nature s functions and services the pervasiveness of externalities conditioned by the public goods characteristics of many environmental functions and values the difficulties in enticing processing and using information about environmental goods and the high transaction costs caused by all these circumstances often rule out contracts and trading of environmental services it is less known that the basic cause of market existence and extension namely specialization and division of labour have negative environmental effects with respect to environmental policy conceptual problems are analyzed while all kinds of environmental management mechanisms have a regulatory function only quantity mechanisms as a subset of incentive mechanisms are market mechanisms the choice of relevant environmental policy instrument is conditioned by many considerations the issue of the superior efficiency properties of market mechanisms in environmental management is not yet settled satisfactorily extensive empirical tests are still lacking

joint implementation strategic reactions and possible remedies this paper investigates the promising proposal of joint implementation ji to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions this was ultimately the only concrete outcome of the conference on climate change in berlin albeit restricted to a pilot phase the basic idea given the public s awareness of global warming sounds economically plausible the industrialized countries the only ones required to stabilize and lower carbon emissions can search for cheaper reductions of greenhouse gas emissions in developing countries and economies in transition however this proposal leads to strategic reactions by developing countries reinforced by the fact that this cheating coincides with the interest of the industrialized country in short this proposal will lead to cheating given asymmetric information and will thus produce largely faked reductions in emissions on the constructive side an efficient mechanism retaining the spirit of ji is derived which deters strategic reactions this differs from a usual principal agent problem through an additional hierarchical layer a global authority e g the conference of parties on climate change an industrialized country and a developing country the unavoidable loss that is even associated with an optimal scheme due to strategic behavioural reality the first best optimum is unattainable except at the top leads of course to much less glamorous predictions in emission reductions moreover the implicit subsidization scheme focuses and favours on already efficient partners

economic instruments for environmental regulation our knowledge about economic incentive approaches to pollution control has grown rapidly in the two decades in which they have received serious analytical attention not only have the theoretical models become more focused and the empirical work more detailed but we have now had over a decade of experience with emissions trading in the u s and emission charges in europe as the world community becomes increasingly conscious of both the need to tighten environmental controls and the local economic perils associated with tighter controls in a highly competitive global marketplace it seems a propitious time to stand back and to organize what we have learned about this practical and promising approach to pollution control that may be especially relevant to current circumstances this paper draws upon economic theory empirical studies and actual experience with implementation to provide a brief overview of some of the major lessons we have learned about two economic incentive approaches emissions tradi copyright 1990 by oxford university press

designing more efficient markets lessons from los angeles smog control market based approaches for environmental protection are beginning to take root around the world this article attempts to improve our understanding of the performance of environmental markets by constructing and evaluating an information base on trades in los angeles which includes the first detailed data on trading prices the analysis suggests that trading activity has been shaped by the detailed regulations governing the market in addition transaction costs have played a crucial role we argue that the move toward adopting market based approaches for environmental protection needs to be accompanied by a vigorous effort to assess the properties of these systems as they are actually implemented

the assessment policy options for the uk previous issues of this review have generally considered particular problems or particular areas of policy the concern of this assessment is rather different to consider the broad range of policy options available to the united kingdom focussing on the main areas of disagreement where economic analysis should be helpful it draws where appropriate not only on the articles on microeconomic and macroeconomic policy included below but also on previous themes covered by the oxford review of economic policy the aim is to delineate the key questions which are or which should be on the policy agenda there is no doubt that the terms of the policy debate have shifted markedly in recent years some disagreements such as those between monetarists and keynesians seem much less important whilst others such as those about the nature and role of the market have sprung to prominance

reducing conflict in global warming policy the potential of equity as a unifying principle abstract international agreement on global warming mitigation is likely to prove difficult efficiency based policies will result in disparate costs and benefits among nations and thus hinder cooperation this paper suggests that consideration be given to an equitable sharing of the economic impacts of global warming policy acknowledging that there is no universally held concept of equity the policy implications of several alternatives are explored because there is considerable variation in these implications it will be important for decision makers to clarify their preferred concepts of equity during the course of their negotiations on policies to address global warming

the rationale of taxation why do governments raise taxes when should they impose taxation in preference to other in struments of economic intervention at first sight the answers to these questions appear obvi ous the purpose of taxation is to raise revenue but this answer although correct in a limited sense is evidently inadequate the traditional role of government was to provide public goods such as defence and police and to obtain funds for the purpose with minimum fuss or cost but this is now a minor part of total fiscal activity in all western economies much of government ex penditure is now devoted to the provision to users at prices well below cost of services such as health and education which could be privately provided and which normally were privately pro vided before public expenditure achieved its present scale direct grants to individuals through social security expenditures form another major element of public budgeting these three ser vices alone now account for over half of uk government spending thus most of the financial transactions of government now involve either taxing some activities to subsidise others or tax ing some individuals to subsidise others the traditional separation between revenue and ex penditure which remains characteristic of british budgetary procedure dates from an era in which the activities of public authorities were very different in both scope and scale

a general equilibrium model of exchange market intervention with variable sterilization abstract the model presented in this paper is characterized by rational expectations sticky prices imperfect capital substitution separate policy functions for domestic credit and credit and reserves and variable sterilization monetary intervention and sterilization policies offer complex tradeoffs between internal and external objectives sterilization dampens exchange rate and price changes due to intervention but magnifies short run changes due to foreign interest rate shocks the ratio of exchange rate to price changes due to intervention rises at an increasing rate with the degree of sterilization and changes in domestic credit induce long run purchasingn power parity but exogeneous changes in reserves income or the foreign interest rate do not