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Strategic Delegation and International Permit Markets: Why Linking May Fail

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  • Wolfgang Habla
  • Ralph Winkler

Abstract

We analyse a principal-agent relationship in the context of international climate policy. Principals in two countries first decide whether to merge domestic emission permit markets to an international market, then delegate the domestic permit supply to an agent. We find that principals select agents caring less for environmental damages than they do themselves in case of an international market regime, while they opt for self-representation in case of domestic markets. This strategic delegation incentive renders the linking of permit markets less attractive and constitutes a novel explanation for the reluctance to establish non-cooperative international permit markets.

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  • Wolfgang Habla & Ralph Winkler, 2017. "Strategic Delegation and International Permit Markets: Why Linking May Fail," CESifo Working Paper Series 6515, CESifo.
    • Handle: RePEc:ces:ceswps:_6515
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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Doda, Baran & Quemin, Simon & Taschini, Luca, 2019. "Linking permit markets multilaterally," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 98(C).
    2. Arvaniti, Maria & Habla, Wolfgang, 2021. "The political economy of negotiating international carbon markets," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 110(C).
    3. Habla, Wolfgang & Winkler, Ralph, 2018. "Strategic delegation and international permit markets: Why linking May fail," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 92(C), pages 244-250.
    4. Ogawa, Hikaru, 2021. "Partial environmental tax coordination and political delegation," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 110(C).
    5. Cheng, Haitao, 2024. "Domestic versus international emissions trading with capital mobility," Resource and Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 77(C).
    6. Gavard, Claire & Kirat, Djamel, 2020. "Short-term impacts of carbon offsetting on emissions trading schemes: Empirical insights from the EU experience," ZEW Discussion Papers 20-058, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research.
    7. Baran Doda, Simon Quemin, Luca Taschini, 2017. "A theory of gains from trade in multilaterally linked ETSs," GRI Working Papers 275, Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment.
    8. Fabio Antoniou & Panos Hatzipanayotou & Nikos Tsakiris, 2021. "Strategic Export Motives and Linking Emission Markets," CESifo Working Paper Series 8847, CESifo.
    9. Spycher, Sarah & Winkler, Ralph, 2022. "Strategic delegation in the formation of modest international environmental agreements," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 141(C).
    10. Gavard, Claire & Schoch, Niklas, 2021. "Climate finance and emission reductions: What do the last twenty years tell us?," ZEW Discussion Papers 21-014, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research.
    11. Doruk İriş & Sungwoo Im, & Hyeonggyun Ko, 2020. "Subjective Beliefs in International Agreements," Working Papers 2010, Nam Duck-Woo Economic Research Institute, Sogang University (Former Research Institute for Market Economy).
    12. Thomas Eichner & Rüdiger Pethig, 2021. "Climate Policy and Moral Consumers," Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 123(4), pages 1190-1226, October.
    13. Holtsmark, Katinka & Midttømme, Kristoffer, 2021. "The dynamics of linking permit markets," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 198(C).
    14. Simon Quemin & Christian Perthuis, 2019. "Transitional Restricted Linkage Between Emissions Trading Schemes," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 74(1), pages 1-32, September.
    15. Djamel KIRAT & Claire GAVARD, 2020. "Short-term impacts of carbon offsetting on emissions trading schemes: empirical insights from the EU experience," LEO Working Papers / DR LEO 2821, Orleans Economics Laboratory / Laboratoire d'Economie d'Orleans (LEO), University of Orleans.
    16. Doruk İriş & Jungmin Lee & Alessandro Tavoni, 2019. "Delegation and Public Pressure in a Threshold Public Goods Game," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 74(3), pages 1331-1353, November.
    17. Margherita Bellanca & Alessandro Spiganti, 2023. "Too Different To Get Along: Inequality and Global Public Goods," Working Papers 2023: 10, Department of Economics, University of Venice "Ca' Foscari".

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    non-cooperative climate policy; political economy; emissions trading; linking of permit markets; strategic delegation; strategic voting;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D72 - Microeconomics - - Analysis of Collective Decision-Making - - - Political Processes: Rent-seeking, Lobbying, Elections, Legislatures, and Voting Behavior
    • H23 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Externalities; Redistributive Effects; Environmental Taxes and Subsidies
    • H41 - Public Economics - - Publicly Provided Goods - - - Public Goods
    • Q54 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - Climate; Natural Disasters and their Management; Global Warming
    • Q58 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - Environmental Economics: Government Policy

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