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Rebating Revenues from Unilateral Emissions Pricing

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  • Böhringer,Christoph
  • Carolyn Fischer
  • Rivers,Nicholas

Abstract

This paper evaluates alternative options for rebating revenues from a unilateral emissions price, focusing on energy-intensive and trade-exposed industries. A theoretical model is developed to demonstrate that conditional rebating policies---which would be distortionary in a first-best world---may be welfare-improving. For example, this could occur in a context where emissions leakage and terms-of-trade changes are associated with the introduction of an emissions price, or when political constraints prevent the emissions price from fully reflecting the social cost of the emissions. A numerical simulation model is used to quantify the differences in welfare, leakage, terms of trade, output, and emissions across carbon prices with alternative rebating options for these leakage-prone industries. The different situations of the European Union and the United States are used as examples. The findings indicate that from a domestic perspective, rebating emissions revenues proportionately to firm output is typically superior to other rebating options when the emissions price is set close to the social cost of emissions. Rebating emission revenues to reward reductions in emissions intensity is typically superior when emissions are significantly under-priced. A country that is more emissions-intensive and less exposed to leakage may prefer to rebate in proportion to total abatement when the emissions price is sufficiently low. The quantitative results indicate that there are significant welfare losses for incorrect choices of the rebating option.

Suggested Citation

  • Böhringer,Christoph & Carolyn Fischer & Rivers,Nicholas, 2024. "Rebating Revenues from Unilateral Emissions Pricing," Policy Research Working Paper Series 10922, The World Bank.
  • Handle: RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:10922
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    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.
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    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • D58 - Microeconomics - - General Equilibrium and Disequilibrium - - - Computable and Other Applied General Equilibrium Models
    • D62 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics - - - Externalities
    • H23 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Externalities; Redistributive Effects; Environmental Taxes and Subsidies
    • Q58 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - Environmental Economics: Government Policy

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