IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/ucp/jlstud/doi10.1086-680990.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Does the Social Cost of Carbon Matter? Evidence from US Policy

Author

Listed:
  • Robert W. Hahn
  • Robert A. Ritz

Abstract

We evaluate a recent US initiative to include the social cost of carbon (SCC) in regulatory decisions. To our knowledge, this paper provides the first systematic analysis of the extent to which applying the SCC has affected national policy. We examine all economically significant federal regulations since 2008 and obtain an unexpected result: putting a value on changes in carbon dioxide emissions does not generally affect the ranking of the preferred policy compared with the status quo. Overall, we find little evidence that using the SCC has mattered for the choice of policy in the United States. This is true even for policies explicitly aimed at reducing carbon dioxide emissions. We offer some possible explanations for the patterns observed in the data.

Suggested Citation

  • Robert W. Hahn & Robert A. Ritz, 2015. "Does the Social Cost of Carbon Matter? Evidence from US Policy," The Journal of Legal Studies, University of Chicago Press, vol. 44(1), pages 229-248.
    • Handle: RePEc:ucp:jlstud:doi:10.1086/680990
    DOI: 10.1086/680990
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1086/680990
    Download Restriction: Access to the online full text or PDF requires a subscription.
    File URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1086/680990
    Download Restriction: Access to the online full text or PDF requires a subscription.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1086/680990?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. Winston Harrington & Richard D. Morgenstern & Peter Nelson, 2000. "On the accuracy of regulatory cost estimates," Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 19(2), pages 297-322.
    2. R. H. Coase, 2013. "The Problem of Social Cost," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 56(4), pages 837-877.
    3. Stavins, Robert, 2007. "A U.S. Cap-and-Trade System to Address Global Climate Change," Working Paper Series rwp07-052, Harvard University, John F. Kennedy School of Government.
    4. Robert Hahn & Robert Ritz, 2014. "Optimal Altruism in Public Good Provision," Cambridge Working Papers in Economics 1403, Faculty of Economics, University of Cambridge.
    5. Richard S. J. Tol, 2009. "The Economic Effects of Climate Change," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 23(2), pages 29-51, Spring.
    6. repec:reg:rpubli:98 is not listed on IDEAS
    7. Robert W. Hahn & Paul C. Tetlock, 2008. "Has Economic Analysis Improved Regulatory Decisions?," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 22(1), pages 67-84, Winter.
    8. Lave, Lester B, 1984. "Controlling Contradictions among Regulations," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 74(3), pages 471-475, June.
    9. Elisabeth J. Moyer & Mark D. Woolley & Nathan J. Matteson & Michael J. Glotter & David A. Weisbach, 2014. "Climate Impacts on Economic Growth as Drivers of Uncertainty in the Social Cost of Carbon," The Journal of Legal Studies, University of Chicago Press, vol. 43(2), pages 401-425.
    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. Richard S.J. Tol, 2018. "The impact of climate change and the social cost of carbon," Working Paper Series 1318, Department of Economics, University of Sussex Business School.
    2. Richard S.J. Tol, 2017. "The Private Benefit of Carbon and its Social Cost," Working Paper Series 0717, Department of Economics, University of Sussex Business School.
    3. Tol, Richard S.J., 2019. "A social cost of carbon for (almost) every country," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 83(C), pages 555-566.

    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. David Anthoff & Robert Hahn, 2010. "Government failure and market failure: on the inefficiency of environmental and energy policy," Oxford Review of Economic Policy, Oxford University Press and Oxford Review of Economic Policy Limited, vol. 26(2), pages 197-224, Summer.
    2. Robert W. Hahn & Robert A. Ritz, 2013. "Does the Social Cost of Carbon Matter?: An Assessment of U.S. Policy," Working Papers EPRG 1323, Energy Policy Research Group, Cambridge Judge Business School, University of Cambridge.
    3. Franziska Piontek & Matthias Kalkuhl & Elmar Kriegler & Anselm Schultes & Marian Leimbach & Ottmar Edenhofer & Nico Bauer, 2019. "Economic Growth Effects of Alternative Climate Change Impact Channels in Economic Modeling," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 73(4), pages 1357-1385, August.
    4. Richard S.J. Tol, 2021. "Estimates of the social cost of carbon have not changed over time," Working Paper Series 0821, Department of Economics, University of Sussex Business School.
    5. Robert N. Stavins, 2011. "The Problem of the Commons: Still Unsettled after 100 Years," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 101(1), pages 81-108, February.
    6. Tol, Richard S.J., 2019. "A social cost of carbon for (almost) every country," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 83(C), pages 555-566.
    7. Jihad C. Elnaboulsi & Wassim Daher & Yiğit Sağlam, 2023. "Environmental taxation, information precision, and information sharing," Journal of Public Economic Theory, Association for Public Economic Theory, vol. 25(2), pages 301-341, April.
    8. Stavins, Robert N., 2019. "The Future of U.S. Carbon-Pricing Policy: Normative Assessment and Positive Prognosis," Working Paper Series rwp19-017, Harvard University, John F. Kennedy School of Government.
    9. Pang, Yu, 2019. "Taxing pollution and profits: A bargaining approach," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 78(C), pages 278-288.
    10. Jerry Ellig & Patrick A. McLaughlin & John F. Morrall III, 2013. "Continuity, change, and priorities: The quality and use of regulatory analysis across US administrations," Regulation & Governance, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 7(2), pages 153-173, June.
    11. 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.
    12. Richard S. J. Tol, 2021. "Estimates of the social cost of carbon have increased over time," Papers 2105.03656, arXiv.org, revised Aug 2022.
    13. McCann, Laura, 2013. "Transaction costs and environmental policy design," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 88(C), pages 253-262.
    14. Chang, Jun-Jie & Mi, Zhifu & Wei, Yi-Ming, 2023. "Temperature and GDP: A review of climate econometrics analysis," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 66(C), pages 383-392.
    15. S. Niggol Seo, 2015. "Adaptation to Global Warming as an Optimal Transition Process to A Greenhouse World," Economic Affairs, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 35(2), pages 272-284, June.
    16. S. Niggol Seo, 2013. "Economics of global warming as a global public good: Private incentives and smart adaptations," Regional Science Policy & Practice, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 5(1), pages 83-95, March.
    17. Richard S J Tol, 2018. "The Economic Impacts of Climate Change," Review of Environmental Economics and Policy, Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 12(1), pages 4-25.
    18. Wang, Mingxi & Hu, Yi & Wang, Shouyang & Dang, Chuangyin, 2023. "The optimal carbon tax mechanism for managing carbon emissions," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 87(PB).
    19. Simpson R. David, 2014. "Do regulators overestimate the costs of regulation?," Journal of Benefit-Cost Analysis, De Gruyter, vol. 5(2), pages 315-332, June.
    20. Caroline Cecot & Robert Hahn & Andrea Renda & Lorna Schrefler, 2008. "An evaluation of the quality of impact assessment in the European Union with lessons for the US and the EU," Regulation & Governance, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 2(4), pages 405-424, December.

    More about this item

    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:ucp:jlstud:doi:10.1086/680990. 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: Journals Division (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/JLS .

    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.