General Equilibrium Impacts of a Federal Clean Energy Standard

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Goulder, Lawrence H.; Hafstead, Marc A. C.; Williams, Roberton C., III
• 署名单位: Stanford University; Resources for the Future; University System of Maryland; University of Maryland College Park
• 刊物名称: AMERICAN ECONOMIC JOURNAL-ECONOMIC POLICY
• ISSN/ISSBN: 1945-7731
• DOI: 10.1257/pol.20140011
• 发表日期: 2016
• 页码: 186-218
• 关键词: adjustment costs; taxes

摘要

Economists have tended to view emissions pricing (e.g., cap and trade or a carbon tax) as the most cost-effective approach to reducing greenhouse gas emissions. This paper offers a different view. Employing analytical and numerically solved general equilibrium models, it provides plausible conditions under which a more conventional form of regulation-namely, the use of a clean energy standard (CES)-is more cost-effective. The models reveal that the CES distorts factor markets less because it is a smaller implicit tax on factors of production. This advantage more than offsets the disadvantages of the CES when minor emissions reductions are involved.