A note on the early history of emission trading: mixing standard and market for rights

Nathalie Berta ()
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Nathalie Berta: REGARDS - Recherches en Économie Gestion AgroRessources Durabilité Santé- EA 6292 - URCA - Université de Reims Champagne-Ardenne - MSH-URCA - Maison des Sciences Humaines de Champagne-Ardenne - URCA - Université de Reims Champagne-Ardenne

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Abstract: This paper studies the early history of the idea of markets for emission rights in the late 1960s. It stresses the difference between Thomas Crocker's and John Dales's proposals that are rarely distinguished in the literature. It briefly presents Dales's proposal and his important critics of optimal solutions, like cost benefit analyses, that led him to settle on a politically chosen level of emission. Finally, the paper shows that, even though today what are called cap-and-trade instruments are widely used to manage pollution, acid rain or global warming, the early reception of Dales's idea by environmental economists was quite cautious, even by those who were promoting the use of incentives in pollution control.

Keywords: cap-and-trade; emission trading; pollution princing John Dales; cost efficiency (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021-09-24
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Published in Cahiers d'Economie Politique = Papers in political economy, 2021, Economics and the environment since the 1950s, 79, pp.1. ⟨10.3917/cep1.079.0061⟩

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hal:journl:hal-02968111

DOI: 10.3917/cep1.079.0061

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