IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/resene/v35y2013i3p256-276.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Market power, private information, and the optimal scale of pollution permit markets with application to North Carolina's Neuse River

Author

Listed:
  • Yates, Andrew J.
  • Doyle, Martin W.
  • Rigby, J.R.
  • Schnier, Kurt E.

Abstract

We extend the analysis of optimal scale in pollution permit markets by allowing for both market power and private information. We characterize the total costs (abatement costs and damages) under market power and private information and compare them to total costs under competition. It is possible for both market power and private information to lead to lower total costs than competition, but generally the differences between the three market structures will be small. We also conduct an optimal scale analysis of nitrogen pollution from waste water treatment plants (WWTP) into North Carolina's Neuse River System. An economic model of damages and abatement costs is integrated with a hydro-ecological model of nitrogen flow through the Neuse. We determine the optimal number of trading zones and allocate the WWTP into these zones. Under the most likely regulatory scenario, we find cost savings of 1.55 million dollars per year under the optimal market design relative to the typical 303(d) regulation in which the WWTP are not allowed to trade.

Suggested Citation

  • Yates, Andrew J. & Doyle, Martin W. & Rigby, J.R. & Schnier, Kurt E., 2013. "Market power, private information, and the optimal scale of pollution permit markets with application to North Carolina's Neuse River," Resource and Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 35(3), pages 256-276.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:resene:v:35:y:2013:i:3:p:256-276
    DOI: 10.1016/j.reseneeco.2013.02.003
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0928765513000080
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.reseneeco.2013.02.003?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Robert W. Hahn, 1984. "Market Power and Transferable Property Rights," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 99(4), pages 753-765.
    2. Wirl, Franz, 2009. "Oligopoly meets oligopsony: The case of permits," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 58(3), pages 329-337, November.
    3. Richard D. Horan & James S. Shortle, 2005. "When Two Wrongs Make a Right: Second-Best Point-Nonpoint Trading Ratios," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 87(2), pages 340-352.
    4. Montgomery, W. David, 1972. "Markets in licenses and efficient pollution control programs," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 5(3), pages 395-418, December.
    5. R. Scott Farrow & Martin T. Schultz & Pinar Celikkol & George L. Van Houtven, 2005. "Pollution Trading in Water Quality Limited Areas: Use of Benefits Assessment and Cost-Effective Trading Ratios," Land Economics, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 81(2).
    6. Mendelsohn, Robert, 1986. "Regulating heterogeneous emissions," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 13(4), pages 301-312, December.
    7. Tom Tietenberg, 1995. "Tradeable permits for pollution control when emission location matters: What have we learned?," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 5(2), pages 95-113, March.
    8. Fraas, Arthur G. & Munley, Vincent G., 1984. "Municipal wastewater treatment cost," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 11(1), pages 28-38, March.
    9. Stavins, Robert N., 1996. "Correlated Uncertainty and Policy Instrument Choice," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 30(2), pages 218-232, March.
    10. McConnell, Virginia D. & Schwarz, Gregory E., 1992. "The supply and demand for pollution control: Evidence from wastewater treatment," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 23(1), pages 54-77, July.
    11. Hung, Ming-Feng & Shaw, Daigee, 2005. "A trading-ratio system for trading water pollution discharge permits," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 49(1), pages 83-102, January.
    12. Gassman, Philip W. & Reyes, Manuel R. & Green, Colleen H. & Arnold, Jeffrey G., 2007. "The Soil and Water Assessment Tool: Historical Development, Applications, and Future Research Directions," ISU General Staff Papers 200701010800001027, Iowa State University, Department of Economics.
    13. Krysiak, Frank C. & Schweitzer, Patrick, 2010. "The optimal size of a permit market," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 60(2), pages 133-143, September.
    14. David Malueg & Andrew Yates, 2009. "Bilateral Oligopoly, Private Information, and Pollution Permit Markets," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 43(4), pages 553-572, August.
    15. Hege Westskog, 1996. "Market Power in a System of Tradeable CO2 Quotas," The Energy Journal, International Association for Energy Economics, vol. 0(Number 3), pages 85-103.
    16. Klemperer, Paul D & Meyer, Margaret A, 1989. "Supply Function Equilibria in Oligopoly under Uncertainty," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 57(6), pages 1243-1277, November.
    17. Andreas Lange, 2012. "On the Endogeneity of Market Power in Emissions Markets," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 52(4), pages 573-583, August.
    18. Kenneth Hendricks & R. Preston Mcafee, 2010. "A Theory Of Bilateral Oligopoly," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 48(2), pages 391-414, April.
    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. Liang Liu & Cong Feng & Hongwei Zhang & Xuehua Zhang, 2015. "Game Analysis and Simulation of the River Basin Sustainable Development Strategy Integrating Water Emission Trading," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 7(5), pages 1-21, April.
    2. Jay S. Coggins & Andrew L. Goodkind & Jason Nguyen & Zhiyu Wang, 2019. "Price Effects, Inefficient Environmental Policy, and Windfall Profits," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 72(3), pages 637-656, March.
    3. Wang, Xu & Zhu, Lei & Liu, Pengfei, 2021. "Manipulation via endowments: Quantifying the influence of market power on the emission trading scheme," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 103(C).
    4. Tanaka, Kenta & Matsukawa, Isamu & Managi, Shunsuke, 2020. "An experimental investigation of bilateral oligopoly in emissions trading markets," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 59(C).

    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. Haita, Corina, 2014. "Endogenous market power in an emissions trading scheme with auctioning," Resource and Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 37(C), pages 253-278.
    2. Dickson, Alex & MacKenzie, Ian A., 2018. "Strategic trade in pollution permits," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 87(C), pages 94-113.
    3. Wang, Xu & Zhu, Lei & Liu, Pengfei, 2021. "Manipulation via endowments: Quantifying the influence of market power on the emission trading scheme," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 103(C).
    4. James Shortle & Richard D. Horan, 2017. "Nutrient Pollution: A Wicked Challenge for Economic Instruments," Water Economics and Policy (WEP), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 3(02), pages 1-39, April.
    5. Godal Odd & Meland Frode, 2010. "Permit Markets, Seller Cartels and the Impact of Strategic Buyers," The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 10(1), pages 1-33, April.
    6. Tanaka, Kenta & Matsukawa, Isamu & Managi, Shunsuke, 2020. "An experimental investigation of bilateral oligopoly in emissions trading markets," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 59(C).
    7. Alex Dickson & Ian A. MacKenzie, 2022. "Permit Markets with Political and Market Distortions," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 82(1), pages 227-255, May.
    8. Revesz, Richard & Stavins, Robert, 2004. "Environmental Law and Policy," Working Paper Series rwp04-023, Harvard University, John F. Kennedy School of Government.
    9. Meredith Fowlie & Nicholas Muller, 2019. "Market-Based Emissions Regulation When Damages Vary across Sources: What Are the Gains from Differentiation?," Journal of the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, University of Chicago Press, vol. 6(3), pages 593-632.
    10. Robert W. Hahn & Robert N. Stavins, 2011. "The Effect of Allowance Allocations on Cap-and-Trade System Performance," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 54(S4), pages 267-294.
    11. Aaron M. Cook & James S. Shortle, 2022. "Pollutant Trading with Transport Time Lags," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 82(2), pages 355-382, June.
    12. Simon Quemin & Christian Perthuis, 2019. "Transitional Restricted Linkage Between Emissions Trading Schemes," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 74(1), pages 1-32, September.
    13. James Shortle & Richard D. Horan, 2013. "Policy Instruments for Water Quality Protection," Annual Review of Resource Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 5(1), pages 111-138, June.
    14. Fabio Antoniou & Panos Hatzipanayotou & Phoebe Koundouri, 2010. "Tradable Permits vs Ecological Dumping," Environmental Economy and Policy Research Working Papers 50.2010, University of Cambridge, Department of Land Economics, revised 2010.
    15. Andreas Lange, 2012. "On the Endogeneity of Market Power in Emissions Markets," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 52(4), pages 573-583, August.
    16. Guo, Xinyu, 2021. "Capacity coordination and strategic underproduction under cap-and-trade," ISU General Staff Papers 202112212129530000, Iowa State University, Department of Economics.
    17. David Malueg & Andrew Yates, 2009. "Bilateral Oligopoly, Private Information, and Pollution Permit Markets," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 43(4), pages 553-572, August.
    18. Arthur Caplan, 2008. "Incremental and Average Control Costs in a Model of Water Quality Trading with Discrete Abatement Units," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 41(3), pages 419-435, November.
    19. Werner Antweiler, 2017. "Emission trading for air pollution hot spots: getting the permit market right," Environmental Economics and Policy Studies, Springer;Society for Environmental Economics and Policy Studies - SEEPS, vol. 19(1), pages 35-58, January.
    20. Berck, Peter & Helfand, Gloria E. & Kim, Hong Jin, 1999. "Spatial variation in benefits and costs, or why pollution isn't always for sale," Department of Agricultural & Resource Economics, UC Berkeley, Working Paper Series qt4vw275cm, Department of Agricultural & Resource Economics, UC Berkeley.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Pollution permits; Market power; Water pollution; Optimal scale;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • L13 - Industrial Organization - - Market Structure, Firm Strategy, and Market Performance - - - Oligopoly and Other Imperfect Markets
    • Q52 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - Pollution Control Adoption and Costs; Distributional Effects; Employment Effects
    • Q53 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - Air Pollution; Water Pollution; Noise; Hazardous Waste; Solid Waste; Recycling

    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:eee:resene:v:35:y:2013:i:3:p:256-276. 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: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/inca/505569 .

    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.