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Who Wins from Emissions Trading? Evidence from California

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  • Corbett Grainger

    (University of Wisconsin – Madison)

  • Thanicha Ruangmas

    (University of Wisconsin – Madison)

Abstract

Researchers and environmental policy advocates have raised questions regarding the distributional impacts of emissions trading programs, a.k.a. “cap-and-trade”. While previous research has been careful to identify the causal effect of emissions trading on emissions reductions (Fowlie et al. in Am Econ Rev 102(2):965–993, 2012, hereafter FHM), we argue that existing estimates of differential impacts on demographic groups have relied on unrealistic assumptions regarding pollution dispersion. In this paper, we estimate the emissions reduction due to the RECLAIM cap-and-trade program in Southern California following the identification strategy of FHM, but we relax the assumption of uniform dispersion surrounding point sources. We model the transport of effluents using a state-of-the-science dispersion model to determine the areas impacted by emissions from each source. Importantly, conditional on race and ethnicity, we find that higher income areas receive larger reductions in pollution under cap-and-trade. Furthermore, conditional on income (or poverty rates), we find that Blacks benefit while Hispanics lose relative to whites under RECLAIM.

Suggested Citation

  • Corbett Grainger & Thanicha Ruangmas, 2018. "Who Wins from Emissions Trading? Evidence from California," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 71(3), pages 703-727, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:kap:enreec:v:71:y:2018:i:3:d:10.1007_s10640-017-0180-1
    DOI: 10.1007/s10640-017-0180-1
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    Cited by:

    1. Moritz A. Drupp & Ulrike Kornek & Jasper N. Meya & Lutz Sager, 2021. "Inequality and the Environment: The Economics of a Two-Headed Hydra," CESifo Working Paper Series 9447, CESifo.
    2. Danae Hernandez-Cortes & Kyle C. Meng, 2020. "Do Environmental Markets Cause Environmental Injustice? Evidence from California's Carbon Market," NBER Working Papers 27205, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    3. Sileci, Lorenzo, 2023. "Carbon pricing with regressive co-benefits: evidence from British Columbia’s carbon tax," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 121047, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
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    5. Hernandez-Cortes, Danae & Meng, Kyle C., 2023. "Do environmental markets cause environmental injustice? Evidence from California’s carbon market," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 217(C).
    6. Fang Dong & Chengdong Shi & Weitong Yu, 2022. "Coordinated Decision-Making in Embedded Supply Chain from a Sustainable Development Perspective," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(1), pages 1-19, December.
    7. Aldy, Joseph E. & Auffhammer, Maximillian & Cropper, Maureen L. & Fraas, Arthur G. & Morgenstern, Richard D., 2020. "Looking Back at Fifty Years of the Clean Air Act," RFF Working Paper Series 20-01, Resources for the Future.
    8. Erin T. Mansur & Glenn Sheriff, 2019. "Do Pollution Markets Harm Low Income and Minority Communities? Ranking Emissions Distributions Generated by California's RECLAIM Program," NBER Working Papers 25666, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    9. Lucas Cain & Danae Hernandez-Cortes & Christopher Timmins & Paige Weber, 2023. "Recent Findings and Methodologies in Economics Research in Environmental Justice," CESifo Working Paper Series 10283, CESifo.

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