IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/jeeman/v119y2023ics0095069623000347.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Tax, kill or bill: An analysis of unilateral CO2 price floor options in multilateral emissions trading systems

Author

Listed:
  • Böhringer, Christoph
  • Fischer, Carolyn

Abstract

As more governments consider minimum domestic CO2 prices, we investigate three unilateral options for jurisdictions operating within a multilateral emissions trading system (ETS): 1) an additional CO2TAX; 2) an auction reserve policy to KILL (invalidate) allowances; and 3) an overcompliance requirement to BILL domestic emitters for extra allowances per ton of emissions. We assess three main economic incentives for unilateral action: environmental benefits, fiscal benefits, and terms-of-trade gains. We derive theoretically optimal unilateral price floors and, based on numerical simulations for the EU ETS, illustrate how a national government's preferred strategy depends on how it values fiscal versus environmental benefits.

Suggested Citation

  • Böhringer, Christoph & Fischer, Carolyn, 2023. "Tax, kill or bill: An analysis of unilateral CO2 price floor options in multilateral emissions trading systems," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 119(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jeeman:v:119:y:2023:i:c:s0095069623000347
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jeem.2023.102816
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0095069623000347
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.jeem.2023.102816?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. Christoph Böhringer & Jared C. Carbone & Thomas F. Rutherford, 2016. "The Strategic Value of Carbon Tariffs," American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, American Economic Association, vol. 8(1), pages 28-51, February.
    2. Martin L. Weitzman, 1974. "Prices vs. Quantities," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 41(4), pages 477-491.
    3. Christoph Böhringer & Jared C. Carbone & Thomas F. Rutherford, 2018. "Embodied Carbon Tariffs," Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 120(1), pages 183-210, January.
    4. Sabine Fuss & Christian Flachsland & Nicolas Koch & Ulrike Kornek & Brigitte Knopf & Ottmar Edenhofer, 2018. "A Framework for Assessing the Performance of Cap-and-Trade Systems: Insights from the European Union Emissions Trading System," Review of Environmental Economics and Policy, Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 12(2), pages 220-241.
    5. Christian Flachsland & Robert Marschinski & Ottmar Edenhofer, 2009. "To link or not to link: benefits and disadvantages of linking cap-and-trade systems," Climate Policy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 9(4), pages 358-372, July.
    6. Kollenberg, Sascha & Taschini, Luca, 2019. "Dynamic supply adjustment and banking under uncertainty in an emission trading scheme: The market stability reserve," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 118(C), pages 213-226.
    7. A. Denny Ellerman & Claudio Marcantonini & Aleksandar Zaklan, 2016. "The European Union Emissions Trading System: Ten Years and Counting," Review of Environmental Economics and Policy, Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 10(1), pages 89-107.
    8. Rutherford, Thomas F., 1995. "Extension of GAMS for complementarity problems arising in applied economic analysis," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 19(8), pages 1299-1324, November.
    9. Salvador Barrios & Jonathan Pycroft & Bert Saveyn, 2013. "The marginal cost of public funds in the EU: the case of labour versus green taxes," Taxation Papers 35, Directorate General Taxation and Customs Union, European Commission.
    10. A. Bovenberg, 1999. "Green Tax Reforms and the Double Dividend: an Updated Reader's Guide," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 6(3), pages 421-443, August.
    11. Grischa Perino & Robert A. Ritz & Arthur van Benthem, 2019. "Overlapping Climate Policies," NBER Working Papers 25643, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    12. Grischa Perino, 2018. "New EU ETS Phase 4 rules temporarily puncture waterbed," Nature Climate Change, Nature, vol. 8(4), pages 262-264, April.
    13. Gökçe Akɪn-Olçum & Christoph Böhringer & Thomas Rutherford & Andrew Schreiber, 2021. "Economic and environmental impacts of a proposed ‘Carbon adder' on New York’s energy market," Climate Policy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 21(6), pages 823-842, July.
    14. Severin Borenstein & James Bushnell & Frank A. Wolak & Matthew Zaragoza-Watkins, 2019. "Expecting the Unexpected: Emissions Uncertainty and Environmental Market Design," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 109(11), pages 3953-3977, November.
    15. Christoph Böhringer & Henrike Koschel & Ulf Moslener, 2008. "Efficiency losses from overlapping regulation of EU carbon emissions," Journal of Regulatory Economics, Springer, vol. 33(3), pages 299-317, June.
    16. Reyer Gerlagh & Roweno J. R. K. Heijmans, 2019. "Climate-conscious consumers and the buy, bank, burn program," Nature Climate Change, Nature, vol. 9(6), pages 431-433, June.
    17. Fischer, Carolyn & Preonas, Louis, 2010. "Combining Policies for Renewable Energy: Is the Whole Less Than the Sum of Its Parts?," International Review of Environmental and Resource Economics, now publishers, vol. 4(1), pages 51-92, June.
    18. Lawrence Goulder, 1995. "Environmental taxation and the double dividend: A reader's guide," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 2(2), pages 157-183, August.
    19. Wood, Peter John & Jotzo, Frank, 2011. "Price floors for emissions trading," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 39(3), pages 1746-1753, March.
    20. Koch, Nicolas & Fuss, Sabine & Grosjean, Godefroy & Edenhofer, Ottmar, 2014. "Causes of the EU ETS price drop: Recession, CDM, renewable policies or a bit of everything?—New evidence," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 73(C), pages 676-685.
    21. Newell, Richard G. & Pizer, William A., 2003. "Regulating stock externalities under uncertainty," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 45(2, Supple), pages 416-432, March.
    22. Andrea Baranzini & Stefano Carattini, 2017. "Effectiveness, earmarking and labeling: testing the acceptability of carbon taxes with survey data," Environmental Economics and Policy Studies, Springer;Society for Environmental Economics and Policy Studies - SEEPS, vol. 19(1), pages 197-227, January.
    23. Kallbekken, Steffen & Kroll, Stephan & Cherry, Todd L., 2011. "Do you not like Pigou, or do you not understand him? Tax aversion and revenue recycling in the lab," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 62(1), pages 53-64, July.
    24. Böhringer, Christoph & Dijkstra, Bouwe & Rosendahl, Knut Einar, 2014. "Sectoral and regional expansion of emissions trading," Resource and Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 37(C), pages 201-225.
    25. Roberts, Marc J. & Spence, Michael, 1976. "Effluent charges and licenses under uncertainty," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 5(3-4), pages 193-208.
    26. Christoph Bohringer & Jared Carbone & Thomas F. Rutherford, "undated". "Embodied Carbon Tariffs," Working Papers 2013-24, Department of Economics, University of Calgary, revised 11 Oct 2013.
    27. Reyer Gerlagh & Roweno J R K Heijmans & Knut Einar Rosendahl, 2021. "An endogenous emissions cap produces a green paradox [Combining price and quantity controls under partitioned environmental regulation]," Economic Policy, CEPR, CESifo, Sciences Po;CES;MSH, vol. 36(107), pages 485-522.
    28. Katharine Ricke & Laurent Drouet & Ken Caldeira & Massimo Tavoni, 2018. "Country-level social cost of carbon," Nature Climate Change, Nature, vol. 8(10), pages 895-900, October.
    29. Angel Aguiar & Maksym Chepeliev & Erwin L. Corong & Robert McDougall & Dominique van der Mensbrugghe, 2019. "The GTAP Data Base: Version 10," Journal of Global Economic Analysis, Center for Global Trade Analysis, Department of Agricultural Economics, Purdue University, vol. 4(1), pages 1-27, June.
    30. Knut Einar Rosendahl, 2019. "EU ETS and the waterbed effect," Nature Climate Change, Nature, vol. 9(10), pages 734-735, October.
    31. William Nordhaus, 2015. "Climate Clubs: Overcoming Free-Riding in International Climate Policy," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 105(4), pages 1339-1370, 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. Zhang, Xinhua & Hueng, C. James & Lemke, Robert J., 2023. "Using a price floor on carbon allowances to achieve emission reductions under uncertainty," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 80(C), pages 1096-1110.
    2. Limin Du & Zheng Wang & Zhaohua Xiao, 2024. "Command thy blessing from above: vertically delegated carbon reduction targets and firm export performance in China," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 67(6), pages 2643-2675, December.

    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. Christoph Böhringer & Carolyn Fischer, 2020. "Kill Bill or Tax: An Analysis of Alternative CO2 Price Floor Options for EU Member States," CESifo Working Paper Series 8631, CESifo.
    2. Quemin, Simon & Trotignon, Raphaël, 2021. "Emissions trading with rolling horizons," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 125(C).
    3. Gerlagh, Reyer & Hejimans, Roweno J. R. K. & Rosendahl, Knut Einar, 2020. "Endogenous Emission Caps Always Produce a Green Paradox," Working Paper Series 4-2020, Norwegian University of Life Sciences, School of Economics and Business.
    4. Filippo Maria D’Arcangelo & Ilai Levin & Alessia Pagani & Mauro Pisu & Åsa Johansson, 2022. "A framework to decarbonise the economy," OECD Economic Policy Papers 31, OECD Publishing.
    5. Heijmans, Roweno J.R.K., 2023. "Adjustable emissions caps and the price of pollution," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 118(C).
    6. Edenhofer, Ottmar & Flachsland, Christian & Kalkuhl, Matthias & Knopf, Brigitte & Pahle, Michael, 2019. "Optionen für eine CO2-Preisreform," Working Papers 04/2019, German Council of Economic Experts / Sachverständigenrat zur Begutachtung der gesamtwirtschaftlichen Entwicklung.
    7. Heijmans, Roweno J.R.K. & Engström, Max, 2024. "Time Horizons and Emissions Trading," Discussion Papers 2024/2, Norwegian School of Economics, Department of Business and Management Science.
    8. Quemin, Simon, 2022. "Raising climate ambition in emissions trading systems: The case of the EU ETS and the 2021 review," Resource and Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 68(C).
    9. Abrell, Jan & Rausch, Sebastian, 2017. "Combining price and quantity controls under partitioned environmental regulation," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 145(C), pages 226-242.
    10. Doda, Baran & Quemin, Simon & Taschini, Luca, 2019. "Linking permit markets multilaterally," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 98(C).
    11. Böhringer, Christoph & Rosendahl, Knut Einar, 2022. "Europe beyond coal – An economic and climate impact assessment," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 113(C).
    12. Ohlendorf, Nils & Flachsland, Christian & Nemet, Gregory F. & Steckel, Jan Christoph, 2022. "Carbon price floors and low-carbon investment: A survey of German firms," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 169(C).
    13. Kenneth Bruninx & Marten Ovaere, 2022. "COVID-19, Green Deal and recovery plan permanently change emissions and prices in EU ETS Phase IV," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 13(1), pages 1-10, December.
    14. Simon Quemin, 2020. "Using Supply-Side Policies to Raise Ambition: The Case of the EU ETS and the 2021 Review," Working Papers 2002, Chaire Economie du climat.
    15. Hintermayer, Martin, 2020. "A Carbon Price Floor in the Reformed EU ETS: Design matters!," EWI Working Papers 2020-3, Energiewirtschaftliches Institut an der Universitaet zu Koeln (EWI).
    16. Hintermayer, Martin, 2020. "A carbon price floor in the reformed EU ETS: Design matters!," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 147(C).
    17. Reyer Gerlagh & Roweno J. R. K. Heijmans & Knut Einar Rosendahl, 2020. "COVID-19 Tests the Market Stability Reserve," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 76(4), pages 855-865, August.
    18. Jan Abrell & Sebastian Rausch & Hidemichi Yonezawa, 2019. "Higher Price, Lower Costs? Minimum Prices in the EU Emissions Trading Scheme," Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 121(2), pages 446-481, April.
    19. Barbara Annicchiarico & Stefano Carattini & Carolyn Fischer & Garth Heutel, 2022. "Business Cycles and Environmental Policy: A Primer," Environmental and Energy Policy and the Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 3(1), pages 221-253.
    20. Burmeister, Johannes & Peterson, Sonja, 2016. "National climate policies in times of the European Union Emissions Trading System (EU ETS)," Kiel Working Papers 2052, Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW Kiel).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    CO2 price floor; Emissions trading; Carbon tax;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • H23 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Externalities; Redistributive Effects; Environmental Taxes and Subsidies
    • Q58 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - Environmental Economics: Government Policy
    • D62 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics - - - Externalities

    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:jeeman:v:119:y:2023:i:c:s0095069623000347. 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/622870 .

    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.