 Government failure and market failure: on the inefficiency of environmental and energy policyDavid Anthoff () and Robert Hahn Oxford Review of Economic Policy, 2010, vol. 26, issue 2, 197-224 Abstract: In this article, we describe some important themes in energy and environmental policy. There are two main reasons for our interest in these policies. First, such policies will likely be important in the coming decades as issues related to climate change and energy security come to the fore. Second, there are important lessons to be learned from a careful review of the actual performance of energy and environmental policies. We undertake a selective survey of the literature to highlight what is known about the efficiency of particular kinds of policies, laws, and regulations in these areas. This paper makes three key contributions. The first is to synthesize a large literature on energy and environmental policy in a way that can be easily digested by both non-experts and experts. The second contribution is to suggest that, if history is a guide, then we should not expect many interventions in these policy areas to come close to maximizing net economic benefits. The third is to suggest what might be needed for the development of more efficient energy and environmental policies. Copyright 2010, Oxford University Press. Date: 2010 Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:oup:oxford:v:26:y:2010:i:2:p:197-224 Access Statistics for this article Oxford Review of Economic Policy is currently edited by Christopher Adam More articles in Oxford Review of Economic Policy from Oxford University Press and Oxford Review of Economic Policy Limited |
Is your work missing from RePEc? Here is how to contribute.
Questions or problems? Check the EconPapers FAQ or send mail to .
EconPapers is hosted by the
School of Business at Örebro University.