IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ces/ceswps/_5865.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Externalities in Risky Resource Markets - Optimal Taxes, Leakage and Divestment

Author

Listed:
  • Florian Habermacher

Abstract

We consider a global externality of resource use, with the example of greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuels. A region concerned about climate change may reduce its fuel deposit offer, reduce fuel consumption, and withdraw investments into global fuel extraction. We study leakage rates and optimal taxes on these three activities in a framework with uncertain fuel market returns. Without uncertainty, the unilateral investment tax is welfare-neutral: costless but ineffective divestment. With uncertainty, the regional investment choice affects global fuel usage, and correspondingly the optimal regional fuel policy contains a investment tax in addition to taxes on deposit supply and consumption. Even absent terms-of-trade effects, the optimal unilateral investment tax is a non-marginal fraction of the perceived climate disutility for a region of any size. Equivalently, a rational portfolio optimizer with relevant concern for the climate problem withdraws parts or all of her funds from the carbon sector.

Suggested Citation

  • Florian Habermacher, 2016. "Externalities in Risky Resource Markets - Optimal Taxes, Leakage and Divestment," CESifo Working Paper Series 5865, CESifo.
    • Handle: RePEc:ces:ceswps:_5865
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.cesifo.org/DocDL/cesifo1_wp5865.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Florian Habermacher, 2015. "Carbon Leakage: A Medium- and Long-Term View," CESifo Working Paper Series 5216, CESifo.
    2. Böhringer, Christoph & Lange, Andreas & Rutherford, Thomas F., 2014. "Optimal emission pricing in the presence of international spillovers: Decomposing leakage and terms-of-trade motives," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 110(C), pages 101-111.
    3. Hoel Michael, 1994. "Efficient Climate Policy in the Presence of Free Riders," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 27(3), pages 259-274, November.
    4. van der Ploeg, Frederick & Withagen, Cees, 2012. "Is there really a green paradox?," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 64(3), pages 342-363.
    5. Michael Hoel, 2011. "The Supply Side of CO 2 with Country Heterogeneity," Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 113(4), pages 846-865, December.
    6. Anthony J. Venables, 2014. "Depletion and Development: Natural Resource Supply with Endogenous Field Opening," Journal of the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, University of Chicago Press, vol. 1(3), pages 313-336.
    7. Frederick van der Ploeg, 2018. "Breakthrough Renewables and the Green Paradox," FinanzArchiv: Public Finance Analysis, Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen, vol. 74(1), pages 52-70, March.
    8. Hans-Werner Sinn, 2008. "Public policies against global warming: a supply side approach," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 15(4), pages 360-394, August.
    9. Partha Dasgupta & Geoffrey Heal, 1974. "The Optimal Depletion of Exhaustible Resources," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 41(5), pages 3-28.
    10. Habermacher, Florian & Kirchgässner, Gebhard, 2011. "Climate Effects of Carbon Taxes, Taking into Account Possible Other Future Climate Measures," Economics Working Paper Series 1110, University of St. Gallen, School of Economics and Political Science, revised Feb 2014.
    11. Matthias Kalkuhl & Ottmar Edenhofer, 2010. "Prices vs. Quantities and the Intertemporal Dynamics of the Climate Rent," CESifo Working Paper Series 3044, CESifo.
    12. Golombek, Rolf & Hagem, Cathrine & Hoel, Michael, 1995. "Efficient incomplete international climate agreements," Resource and Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 17(1), pages 25-46, May.
    13. Michael Hoel, 2010. "Is there a Green Paradox?," CESifo Working Paper Series 3168, CESifo.
    14. Michael Hoel, 1978. "Resource Extraction when a Future Substitute has an Uncertain Cost," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 45(3), pages 637-644.
    15. Thomas Eichner & Rüdiger Pethig, 2015. "Buy coal to mitigate climate damage and benefit from strategic deposit action," Volkswirtschaftliche Diskussionsbeiträge 177-15, Universität Siegen, Fakultät Wirtschaftswissenschaften, Wirtschaftsinformatik und Wirtschaftsrecht.
    16. Karp, Larry, 1984. "Optimality and consistency in a differential game with non-renewable resources," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 8(1), pages 73-97, October.
    17. Bård Harstad, 2012. "Buy Coal! A Case for Supply-Side Environmental Policy," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 120(1), pages 77-115.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Frederick van der Ploeg, 2013. "Cumulative Carbon Emissions and the Green Paradox," Annual Review of Resource Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 5(1), pages 281-300, June.
    2. Florian Habermacher, 2015. "Carbon Leakage: A Medium- and Long-Term View," CESifo Working Paper Series 5216, CESifo.
    3. Cathrine Hagem & Halvor Briseid Storrøsten, 2019. "Supply‐ versus Demand‐Side Policies in the Presence of Carbon Leakage and the Green Paradox," Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 121(1), pages 379-406, January.
    4. Johannes Pfeiffer, 2017. "Fossil Resources and Climate Change – The Green Paradox and Resource Market Power Revisited in General Equilibrium," ifo Beiträge zur Wirtschaftsforschung, ifo Institute - Leibniz Institute for Economic Research at the University of Munich, number 77.
    5. Taran Fæhn & Cathrine Hagem & Lars Lindholt & Ståle Mæland & Knut Einar Rosendahl, 2017. "Climate Policies in a Fossil Fuel Producing Country: Demand versus Supply Side Policies," The Energy Journal, , vol. 38(1), pages 77-102, January.
    6. Habermacher, Florian, 2011. "Optimal Fuel-Specific Carbon Pricing and Time Dimension of Leakage," Economics Working Paper Series 1144, University of St. Gallen, School of Economics and Political Science, revised Jan 2012.
    7. Michielsen, Thomas O., 2014. "Brown backstops versus the green paradox," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 68(1), pages 87-110.
    8. Vogt, Angelika & Hagen, Achim & Eisenack, Klaus, 2020. "Buy coal, cap gas! Markets for fossil fuel deposits when fuel emission intensities differ," Working Paper Series 304708, Humboldt University Berlin, Department of Agricultural Economics.
    9. Strand, Jon, 2013. "Strategic climate policy with offsets and incomplete abatement: Carbon taxes versus cap-and-trade," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 66(2), pages 202-218.
    10. Hendrik Ritter & Mark Schopf, 2014. "Unilateral Climate Policy: Harmful or Even Disastrous?," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 58(1), pages 155-178, May.
    11. Frederick van der Ploeg, 2018. "Breakthrough Renewables and the Green Paradox," FinanzArchiv: Public Finance Analysis, Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen, vol. 74(1), pages 52-70, March.
    12. Quentin Grafton, R. & Kompas, Tom & Van Long, Ngo, 2012. "Substitution between biofuels and fossil fuels: Is there a green paradox?," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 64(3), pages 328-341.
    13. Florian Habermacher & Gebhard Kirchgässner, 2011. "Climate Effects of Carbon Taxes, Taking into Account Possible Other Future Climate Measures," CESifo Working Paper Series 3404, CESifo.
    14. Torben K. Mideksa, 2020. "Pricing Pollution," CESifo Working Paper Series 8269, CESifo.
    15. Max Franks & Ottmar Edenhofer & Kai Lessmann, 2017. "Why Finance Ministers Favor Carbon Taxes, Even If They Do Not Take Climate Change into Account," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 68(3), pages 445-472, November.
    16. Hoel, Michael, 2013. "Supply Side Climate Policy and the Green Paradox," Memorandum 03/2013, Oslo University, Department of Economics.
    17. Thomas Eichner & Rüdiger Pethig, 2015. "Unilateral Climate Policy with Production-Based and Consumption-Based Carbon Emission Taxes," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 61(2), pages 141-163, June.
    18. Thomas Eichner & Gilbert Kollenbach & Mark Schopf, 2021. "Buying versus Leasing Fuel Deposits for Preservation," Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 123(1), pages 110-143, January.
    19. Thomas Michielsen, 2013. "Brown Backstops Versus the Green Paradox," OxCarre Working Papers 108, Oxford Centre for the Analysis of Resource Rich Economies, University of Oxford.
    20. Kollenbach, Gilbert & Schopf, Mark, 2022. "Unilaterally optimal climate policy and the green paradox," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 113(C).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    unilateral climate policy; optimal carbon tax; investment uncertainty; carbon leakage; resource rent tax; fossil fuel market; carbon divestment; fuel investment tax; desposit supply tax; exhaustible resources;
    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
    • Q41 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Energy - - - Demand and Supply; Prices
    • H23 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Externalities; Redistributive Effects; Environmental Taxes and Subsidies
    • H21 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Efficiency; Optimal Taxation

    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:ces:ceswps:_5865. 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: Klaus Wohlrabe (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/cesifde.html .

    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.