A paler shade of green: Environmental policy under induced technical change

Corrado Di Maria and Sjak Smulders ()

European Economic Review, 2017, vol. 99, issue C, 151-169

Abstract: Conventional wisdom argues that environmental policy is less costly if it induces the development of cleaner technologies. In contrast to this argument, we show that once the second-best nature of actual economies is taken into account, the cost of environmental policy may well be larger with induced technical change (ITC) than without. Thus, ITC may lower both the emissions reductions and the welfare gains associated with environmental policy. In an endogenous policy framework, ITC may reduce the desired stringency of the policy.

Keywords: Environmental policy; Innovation policy; Induced technical change; Pollution-saving technical change; Pollution-using technical change; Crowding-out; second-best policy (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: H23 O38 Q55 Q58 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (6)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:eecrev:v:99:y:2017:i:c:p:151-169

DOI: 10.1016/j.euroecorev.2017.01.002

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