Carbon Abatement Costs: Why the Wide Range of Estimates?

Carolyn Fischer and Richard Morgenstern ()

RFF Working Paper Series from Resources for the Future

Abstract: Estimates of marginal abatement costs for reducing carbon emissions derived from major economic-energy models vary widely. Controlling for policy regimes, we use meta-analysis to examine the importance of structural modeling choices in explaining differences in estimates. The analysis indicates that particular assumptions about perfectly foresighted consumers and Armington trade elasticities generate lower estimates of marginal abatement costs. Other choices are associated with higher cost estimates, including perfectly mobile capital, inclusion of a backstop technology, and greater disaggregation among regions and sectors. Some features, such as greater technological detail, seem less significant. Understanding the importance of key modeling assumptions, as well as the way the models are used to estimate abatement costs, can help guide the development of consistent modeling practices for policy evaluation.

Keywords: climate models; carbon tax (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D58 Q25 Q4 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2003-09-01
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-ene and nep-env
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (16)

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Related works:
Journal Article: Carbon Abatement Costs: Why the Wide Range of Estimates? (2006)
Working Paper: Carbon Abatement Costs: Why the Wide Range of Estimates? (2003)
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