Decentralizing a Regulatory Standard Expressed in Ratio or Intensity Form

Ross McKitrick

The Energy Journal, 2005, vol. Volume 26, issue Number 4, 43-52

Abstract: It is well-known that economic instruments like taxes and tradable permits can improve the efficiency of attaining a target expressed in terms of a single variable, but many energy and environmental regulations are expressed as a ratio of two variables, for instance, as emissions intensity (tons per unit output) or as a renewables requirement (percentage from wind, biomass, etc.). It has been shown previously that conventional formulas for cost-efficiency do not work in this case. This paper shows that even if conventional permit trading is used, the cost-effective implementation is unlikely to be achieved. Alternative rules are presented that permit decentralized market-based implementation of ratio standards to achieve a cost-effective implementation of a ratio standard.

JEL-codes: F0 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2005
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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