Abating Greenhouse Gas Emissions through Cash-for-Clunker Programs

Alexander Allen, Rachel Carpenter and Geoff Morrison

Institute of Transportation Studies, Working Paper Series from Institute of Transportation Studies, UC Davis

Abstract: Policymakers use incentive-based vehicle scrappage or "Cash-for-Clunker" programs to pursue a range of social and economic goals such as decreasing vehicular emissions, preventing vehicle abandonment, lowering consumer spending on gasoline, and stimulating new vehicle sales. However, there are no programs aimed solely at greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction. This study discusses design considerations for such a program. We evaluate past and present programs to show how regulatory elements in vehicle scrappage programs can be adjusted to maximize GHG savings. We show how fuel-economy based eligibility requirements are preferable to age-based requirements and how financial incentives can be properly aligned to balance program cost and participation rate. Finally, we present a program framework that, at minimum, ensures a Cashfor- Clunkers program offsets GHG emissions attributable to vehicle manufacturing and end-oflife disposal with use-phase emissions reductions.

Keywords: UCD-ITS-RR-09-26; Engineering (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2009-01-01
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.escholarship.org/uc/item/1h30m2r7.pdf;origin=repeccitec (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:cdl:itsdav:qt1h30m2r7

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Institute of Transportation Studies, Working Paper Series from Institute of Transportation Studies, UC Davis Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Lisa Schiff ().