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Taxes, Permits and the Adoption of Abatement Technology under Imperfect Compliance

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  • Villegas, Clara

    (Department of Economics, School of Business, Economics and Law, Göteborg University)

  • Coria, Jessica

    (Department of Economics, School of Business, Economics and Law, Göteborg University)

Abstract

his paper analyzes the effects of the choice between price-based and quantity-based emission regulations on compliance incentives and social welfare in the presence of incomplete enforcement and technology adoption. We show that in contrast to taxes, the extent of violations under tradable emission permits (TEPs) decreases with the rate of technology adoption. However, in terms of welfare, the ranking of the instruments is not so straightforward: taxes induce lower emission damages while TEPs induce lower abatement, investment, and expected enforcement costs. Thereby, the overall ranking depends on the extent to which these effects offset each other.

Suggested Citation

  • Villegas, Clara & Coria, Jessica, 2009. "Taxes, Permits and the Adoption of Abatement Technology under Imperfect Compliance," Working Papers in Economics 368, University of Gothenburg, Department of Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:hhs:gunwpe:0368
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    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/2077/20420
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    Cited by:

    1. Coria, Jessica & Villegas-Palacio, Clara, 2010. "Targeted Enforcement and Aggregate Emissions With Uniform Emission Taxes," Working Papers in Economics 455, University of Gothenburg, Department of Economics.
    2. Carmen Arguedas & Eva Camacho & José Zofío, 2010. "Environmental Policy Instruments: Technology Adoption Incentives with Imperfect Compliance," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 47(2), pages 261-274, October.
    3. Wugan Cai & Peiyun Ye, 2022. "Local-neighborhood effects of different environmental regulations on green innovation: evidence from prefecture level cities of China," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 24(4), pages 4810-4834, April.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Technological adoption; environmental policy; imperfect compliance; enforcement; social welfare;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • K32 - Law and Economics - - Other Substantive Areas of Law - - - Energy, Environmental, Health, and Safety Law
    • K42 - Law and Economics - - Legal Procedure, the Legal System, and Illegal Behavior - - - Illegal Behavior and the Enforcement of Law
    • L51 - Industrial Organization - - Regulation and Industrial Policy - - - Economics of Regulation
    • Q55 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - Environmental Economics: Technological Innovation

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