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Lawrence H Goulder - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
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Climate Change Policy s interactions with the tax system
Energy Economics, 2013Co-Authors: Lawrence H GoulderAbstract:This paper presents a range of insights from recent literature on how Climate-Change policies and other environmental policies interact with the fiscal system. It explores four issues associated with fiscal interactions. First, it examines how these interactions influence the prospects for a “double dividend:” both an environmental improvement and a reduction in the costs of the tax system. Second, it analyzes how the use of revenues from a carbon tax or from a cap-and-trade system involving auctioned emissions allowances influences these policies' economic costs. Third, it addresses the question whether carbon taxes or cap-and-trade programs represent more efficient sources of government revenue than other, more traditional revenue sources such as income, sales, or payroll taxes. Finally, it analyzes how fiscal interactions affect the choice between CO2 emissions-pricing instruments (carbon taxes and cap and trade) and other Climate Policy instruments.
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the choice of discount rate for Climate Change Policy evaluation
Climate Change Economics, 2012Co-Authors: Lawrence H Goulder, Roberton C WilliamsAbstract:Nearly all discussions about the appropriate consumption discount rate for Climate Change Policy evaluation assume that a single discount rate concept applies. We argue that two distinct concepts and associated rates apply. We distinguish between a social-welfare-equivalent discount rate appropriate for determining whether a given Policy would augment social welfare (according to a postulated social welfare function) and a finance-equivalent discount rate suitable for determining whether the Policy would offer a potential Pareto improvement. Distinguishing between the two rates helps resolve arguments as to whether the choice of discount rate should be based on ethical considerations or empirical information (such as market interest rates), and whether the discount rate should serve a prescriptive or descriptive role. Separating out the two rates also helps clarify disputes about the appropriate stringency of Climate Change Policy. We find that the structure of leading numerical optimization models used for Climate Policy analysis may have helped contribute to the blurring of the differences between the two rates. In addition, we indicate that uncertainty about underlying ethical parameters or market conditions implies that both rates should decline as the time horizon increases.
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the choice of discount rate for Climate Change Policy evaluation
National Bureau of Economic Research, 2012Co-Authors: Lawrence H Goulder, Roberton C WilliamsAbstract:Nearly all discussions about the appropriate consumption discount rate for Climate-Change Policy evaluation assume that a single discount rate concept applies. We argue that two distinct concepts and associated rates apply. We distinguish a social-welfare-equivalent discount rate appropriate for determining whether a given Policy would augment social welfare (according to a postulated social welfare function) and a finance-equivalent discount rate suitable for determining whether the Policy would offer a potential Pareto improvement. Distinguishing the two rates helps resolve arguments as to whether the choice of discount rate should be based on ethical considerations or empirical information (such as market interest rates), and about whether the discount rate should serve a prescriptive or descriptive role. Separating out the two rates also helps clarify disputes about the appropriate stringency of Climate Change Policy. We find that the structure of leading numerical optimization models used for Climate Policy analysis may have helped contribute to the blurring of the differences between the two rates. In addition, we indicate that uncertainty about underlying ethical parameters or market conditions implies that both rates should decline as the time-horizon increases.
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challenges from state federal interactions in us Climate Change Policy
The American Economic Review, 2011Co-Authors: Lawrence H Goulder, Robert N StavinsAbstract:With a focus on two sorts of regulation--renewable electricity and clean energy standards, and automobile fuel-economy standards--we analyze problematic interactions that arise when state policies are nested within the domain of Federal Policy. Here state efforts may fail to reduce greenhouse gas emissions nationally, and may compromise cost-effectiveness. Difficulties from overlapping regulations are avoidable through price- (as opposed to quantity-) based Federal Policy. We identify some potentially positive interactions between state and Federal policies, and identify rationales for state action when Federal and state policies do not overlap.
Robert S Pindyck - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
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Climate Change Policy what do the models tell us
Journal of Economic Literature, 2013Co-Authors: Robert S PindyckAbstract:Very little. A plethora of integrated assessment models (IAMs) have been constructed and used to estimate the social cost of carbon (SCC) and evaluate alternative abatement policies. These models have crucial flaws that make them close to useless as tools for Policy analysis: certain inputs (e.g. the discount rate) are arbitrary, but have huge effects on the SCC estimates the models produce; the models' descriptions of the impact of Climate Change are completely ad hoc, with no theoretical or empirical foundation; and the models can tell us nothing about the most important driver of the SCC, the possibility of a catastrophic Climate outcome. IAM-based analyses of Climate Policy create a perception of knowledge and precision, but that perception is illusory and misleading.
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uncertain outcomes and Climate Change Policy
Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, 2012Co-Authors: Robert S PindyckAbstract:I incorporate distributions for temperature Change and its economic impact in an analysis of Climate Change Policy. As a measure of willingness to pay (WTP), I estimate the fraction of consumption w⁎(τ) that society would be willing to sacrifice to ensure that any increase in temperature at a future point is limited to τ. Using information on distributions for temperature Change and economic impact from recent studies assembled by the IPCC and others, I fit displaced gamma distributions for these variables. These fitted distributions, which roughly reflect the “state of knowledge” regarding warming and its impact, generally yield values of w⁎(τ) below 2%, even for small values of τ, consistent with moderate abatement policies. I also calculate WTP for shifts in the mean and standard deviation of the temperature distribution, and show how WTP, and thus the demand for abatement, are driven more by outcome uncertainty than expected outcomes.
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fat tails thin tails and Climate Change Policy
National Bureau of Economic Research, 2010Co-Authors: Robert S PindyckAbstract:Climate Policy is complicated by the considerable compounded uncertainties over the costs and benefits of abatement. We don't even know the probability distributions for future temperatures and impacts, making cost-benefit analysis based on expected values challenging to say the least. There are good reasons to think that those probability distributions are fat-tailed, which implies that if social welfare is based on the expectation of a CRRA utility function, we should be willing to sacrifice close to 100% of GDP to reduce GHG emissions. I argue that unbounded marginal utility makes little sense, and once we put a bound on marginal utility, this implication of fat tails goes away: Expected marginal utility will be finite even if the distribution for outcomes is fat-tailed. Furthermore, depending on the bound on marginal utility, the index of risk aversion, and the damage function, a thin-tailed distribution can yield a higher expected marginal utility (and thus a greater willingness to pay for abatement) than a fat-tailed one.
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uncertain outcomes and Climate Change Policy
National Bureau of Economic Research, 2009Co-Authors: Robert S PindyckAbstract:Focusing on tail effects, I incorporate distributions for temperature Change and its economic impact in an analysis of Climate Change Policy. I estimate the fraction of consumption w*(tau) that society would be willing to sacrifice to ensure that any increase in temperature at a future point is limited to tau. Using information on the distributions for temperature Change and economic impact from studies assembled by the IPCC and from "integrated assessment models" (IAMs), I fit displaced gamma distributions for these variables. Unlike existing IAMs, I model economic impact as a relationship between temperature Change and the growth rate of GDP as opposed to its level, so that warming has a permanent impact on future GDP. The fitted distributions for temperature Change and economic impact generally yield values of w*(tau) below 2%, even for small values of tau, unless one assumes extreme parameter values and/or substantial shifts in the temperature distribution. These results are consistent with moderate abatement policies.
Helmut Weidner - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
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german Climate Change Policy a success story with some flaws
The Journal of Environment & Development, 2008Co-Authors: Helmut WeidnerAbstract:Germany is one of the leading countries in Europe, as well as globally, in terms of its renewable energy and Climate Change policies. The multiple levels of government within the European Union (EU) mean that the German government must interact both with EU institutions (e.g., the Commission, Council, and Parliament) and subnational Lander, or states, when formulating and implementing Policy. The grand coalition government of the Christian Democrats and Social Democrats that came into power in 2005 has set demanding national Climate Change and renewable energy goals and actively supports international Climate negotiations, often spurring EU Policy. This progressive Policy has its roots in the air pollution control policies that started to develop in the 1970s. This article discusses the various factors that are behind Germany's Climate Change Policy leadership.
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Climate Change Policy in Germany: Capacities and Driving Forces
2008Co-Authors: Helmut WeidnerAbstract:Germany is one of the leading countries in both renewable energy Policy and Climate Change Policy. The present government has set demanding goals and actively supports international Climate negotiations. This progressive Policy had already been started in the 1980s under a conservative (and markedly economy-friendly) government. This development could be explained by favorable capacities and capabilities built up over many years in a conflict-laden process at all levels of society, starting in the area of air pollution control Policy in the 1970s. A clear majority of the population supports this Policy and even would like to see the government strengthen its activities at the global level. However, only little information is available on the costs individuals/social groups have to bear due to the highly demanding progressive goals for the “post-Kyoto” period. Will the commitments to global justice sustain if the monetary burdens become apparent? The answer seems to depend also on the “moral capacity” of Germany to move towards the ideals of global justice. The paper discusses various capacities for Climate Change Policy with a focus on moral-ethical aspects.
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Global equity versus public interest? The case of Climate Change Policy in Germany
2005Co-Authors: Helmut WeidnerAbstract:The paper attempts to shed some light on the kind of role equity norms play in German sustainable development Policy and the related discourse, focusing on the issue of global Climate Change. Especially the tensions between the public discussion of equity among and within nations are investigated. Attitudes and commitments of the general public and the main actor groups towards global Climate Change policies and related equity issues are analyzed. One of the central findings of the analysis is that the norm of global fairness enjoys broad (rhetorical) support by all actor groups and the public. However, the support by the public must be characterized as uninformed consent because the effects of the various global Climate policies within Germany are either not discussed or played down by the proponents of a progressive Climate Change Policy. The debates are framed by two different but overlapping discourses informed by the concepts of sustainable development or ecological modernization. While with respect to global Climate Change Policy the sustainable development discourse dominates at the programmatic level (concerned with norms, values and fairness principles), it is clearly the concept of ecological modernization that underlies the concrete policies.
Barbara Saerbeck - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
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Policy entrepreneurs in national Climate Change Policy processes
Environment and Planning C: Politics and Space, 2017Co-Authors: Inken Reimer, Barbara SaerbeckAbstract:The multi-level and multi-actor character of the international Climate governance regime, as well as the imminent need for action to combat Climate Change, stimulates the introduction of new and innovative cross-sectoral Policy proposals by Policy entrepreneurs. To date, academic literature has extensively studied and discussed the importance of Policy entrepreneurs for agenda-setting. The role of Policy entrepreneurs in providing continuous support for a new Climate Policy resulting in its implementation, has on the other hand, so far received only little attention. Taking the Norwegian Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation commitment as an exemplary case, this paper explores the potential of entrepreneurial engagement throughout a country’s Climate Policy-making process. It aims to demonstrate the importance of Policy entrepreneurs beyond agenda-setting, namely for the Policy formulation phase in which responsibilities for the implementation are designated to governmental bodies. ...
James Van Alstine - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
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Can national Policy blockages accelerate the development of polycentric governance? Evidence from Climate Change Policy in the United Kingdom
Global Environmental Change, 2017Co-Authors: Ross Gillard, Andrew Gouldson, Jouni Paavola, James Van AlstineAbstract:Many factors can conspire to limit the scope for Policy development at the national level. In this paper, we consider whether blockages in national Policy processes − resulting for example from austerity or small state political philosophies − might be overcome by the development of more polycentric governance arrangements. Drawing on evidence from three stakeholder workshops and fifteen interviews, we address this question by exploring the United Kingdom's recent retrenchment in the area of Climate Change Policy, and the ways in which its Policy community have responded. We identify two broad strategies based on polycentric principles: ‘working with gatekeepers’ to unlock political capital and ‘collaborate to innovate’ to develop Policy outputs. We then empirically examine the advantages that these actions bring, analysing coordination across overlapping sites of authority, such as those associated with international regimes, devolved administrations and civic and private initiatives that operate in conjunction with, and sometimes independently of, the state. Despite constraining political and economic factors, which are by no means unique to the UK, we find that a polycentric Climate Policy network can create opportunities for overcoming central government blockages. However, we also argue that the ambiguous role of the state in empowering but also in constraining such a network will determine whether a polycentric approach to Climate Policy and governance is genuinely additional and innovative, or whether it is merely a temporary ‘sticking plaster’ for the retreat of the state and Policy retrenchment during austere times.