A fair share: Burden-sharing preferences in the United States and China

Fredrik Carlsson, Mitesh Kataria (), Alan Krupnick, Elina Lampi, Åsa Löfgren, Ping Qin and Thomas Sterner

Resource and Energy Economics, 2013, vol. 35, issue 1, 1-17

Abstract: Using a sequential discrete choice experiment, we investigate preferences for distributing the economic burden of reducing CO2 emissions in the two largest CO2-emitting countries: the United States and China. We asked respondents about their preferences for four burden-sharing rules to reduce CO2 emissions according to their country's relative (1) historical emissions, (2) income level, (3) emissions per capita, and (4) current emissions. We found that respondents overall favored the rule that was least costly for their country. In addition, the willingness to pay was much higher in China, suggesting that how mitigation costs are shared across countries is more important for Chinese than for Americans. To some extent the willingness to pay varies with socioeconomic characteristics and attitudes. For example, university-educated respondents in the United States are willing to pay more for the rule that is the least costly for their own country, compared with those with a lower education level. At the same time, the ranking of the two most preferred rules are generally robust across all socioeconomic groups within each country.

Keywords: Climate; Burden sharing; Fairness; China; United States (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q51 Q52 Q54 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2013
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (29)

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Related works:
Working Paper: A Fair Share: Burden-Sharing Preferences in the United States and China (2010)
Working Paper: A Fair Share - Burden-Sharing Preferences in the United States and China (2010)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:resene:v:35:y:2013:i:1:p:1-17

DOI: 10.1016/j.reseneeco.2012.11.001

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