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A social cost of carbon for (almost) every country

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  • Tol, Richard S.J.

Abstract

This paper uses imputed national climate change impact functions to estimate national social costs of carbon, which are largest in poor countries with large populations. The national social costs of carbon of faster growing economies are less sensitive to the pure rate of time preference and more sensitive to the rate of risk aversion. The pattern of national social costs of carbon is not sensitive to the assumed impact function, climate sensitivity, and scenario, although the global social cost of carbon is. Income convergence raises the national social costs of carbon of poorer countries, and lowers them for richer countries. Both global and national social costs of carbon are most sensitive to the income elasticity of climate change impacts, a parameter about which we know little.

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  • Tol, Richard S.J., 2019. "A social cost of carbon for (almost) every country," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 83(C), pages 555-566.
  • Handle: RePEc:eee:eneeco:v:83:y:2019:i:c:p:555-566
    DOI: 10.1016/j.eneco.2019.07.006
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Climate change; Pigou tax; Climate policy; Non-cooperation; Social cost of carbon;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • Q54 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - Climate; Natural Disasters and their Management; Global Warming

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