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Emission taxes vs. environmental standards under partial ownership arrangements

Quan Dong and Yang-Ming Chang

Research in Economics, 2020, vol. 74, issue 3, 250-262

Abstract: This paper analyzes two pollution control instruments, uniform taxes and absolute standards, when polluting firms engage in partial ownership arrangements (POAs). Specifically, we examine the case of a bilateral POA between competing firms in which both hold equity shares on each other's profits as silent investments. We show that taxes and standards are equally efficacious in affecting the firms' output decisions and pollution emissions. Compared to the social planner's solution, a bilateral POA results in suboptimal outcomes with lower industrial output and consumer surplus. Firm profits are higher and environmental quality improves (since emissions decline), but social welfare decreases. We compare the equilibrium results associated with two different types of POAs (bilateral vs. unilateral), and examine their differences in welfare implications for the choice of policy options between taxes and standards.

Keywords: Emission tax; Environmental standard; Ownership structure; Welfare implications (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: H2 L13 Q58 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:reecon:v:74:y:2020:i:3:p:250-262

DOI: 10.1016/j.rie.2020.07.005

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