妨碍我国排污权交易政策实施的制度瓶颈分析

结合污染物的总量控制和排污许可证制度.我国已经进行了十多年的各类排污权交易试点工作.但是,排污权交易却至今未能形成一个全国统一的环境政策.本文利用制度分析框架从制度结构与不完全合约的角度对此进行分析,并认为妨碍我国排污权交易政策实施的制度瓶颈主要是排污权交易制度结构的缺陷.     

妨碍我国排污权交易政策实施的制度瓶颈分析

结合污染物的总量控制和排污许可证制度,我国已经进行了十多年的各类排污权交易试点工作。但是,排污权交易却至今未能形成一个全国统一的环境政策。本文利用制度分析框架从制度结构与不完全合约的角度对此进行分析,并认为妨碍我国排污权交易政策实施的制度瓶颈主要是排污权交易制度结构的缺陷。     

排污权交易模式的比较研究

文章将排污权交易模式分为无偿分配模式和有偿分配模式、短期交易模式和长期交易模式、存量分配模式和增量分配模式、现货交易模式和期货交易模式共四大类八种模式,并对这些模式进行比较,最后对交易模式选择给出相应建议.     

Intertemporal Permit Trading for the Control of Greenhouse Gas Emissions

This paper integrates two themes in the intertemporal permitliterature through the construction of an intertemporal bankingsystem for a pollutant that creates both stock and flow damages. A permit banking system for the special case of a pollutant thatonly causes stock damages is also developed. This latter,simpler case corresponds roughly to the greenhouse gas emissionreduction regime proposed by the U.S. Department of State as ameans of fulfilling the U.S. commitment to the FrameworkConvention on Climate Change. This paper shows that environmentalregulators can achieve the socially optimal level of emissionsand output through time by setting the correct total sum ofallowable emissions, and specifying the correct intertemporaltrading ratio for banking and borrowing. For the case ofgreenhouse gases, we show that the optimal growth rate of permitprices, and therefore the optimal intertemporal trading rate, hasthe closed-form solution equal to the ratio of current marginalstock damages to the discounted future value of marginal stockdamages less the decay rate of emissions in the atmosphere. Given a non-optimal negotiated emission path we then derive apermit banking system that has the potential to lower net socialcosts by adjusting the intertemporal trading ratio taking intoaccount the behavior of private agents. We use a simplenumerical simulation model to illustrate the potential gains fromvarious possible banking systems.     

Tradable Discharge Permit System for Water Pollution: Case of the Upper Nanpan River of China

A discharge permit system for water pollution of theupper Nanpan River has been tested since 1992. Thispaper proposed the shift of the current non-tradablepermits to tradable permits to attain the samepollution reduction targets at a lower cost. It wasfound that this river appeared good for trading. Apilot trading program for point sources was thenrecommended to a smaller trading zone. There would beten potential trades for chemical oxygen demanddischarge, gaining an annual cost-saving of ChineseYuan 2.4 million, or saving 18.4% of the total annualcost to attain the reduction target without trading.The marginal pollution reduction cost was estimated atChinese Yuan 959 for one kilogram chemical oxygendemand per day. Meanwhile, `without trading' and `withtrading' scenarios would bring about 900.9 kg/day and51.5 kg/day of redundant reduction respectively. Thenet annual benefit arising from trading, about ChineseYuan 1.6 million, would still be significant. At last,the study recommended that compliance monitoring andexecuting institution requirements be kept in mindwhile designing the program. An information systemneeds to be established to provide potentialparticipants relevant information. The method ofpermit allocation and lifespan of permits should alsobe addressed later.     

Transactions Costs in Tradable Permit Markets: An Experimental Study of Pollution Market Designs

Regulators' choices of market rules and permit allocations influence tradable emission permit programs. This paper uses laboratory experiments to study how transaction costs interact with permit allocations to determine the cost-effectiveness of emissions abatement. With positive transaction costs, in theory the initial distribution of permits can affect both abatement costs and equity. Consistent with theory, we find that with declining marginal transaction costs prices deviate less from the efficient level if the misallocation of the initial permit distribution is greater, and the deviation from efficient prices does not vary with the initial permit endowment when marginal transaction costs are constant.     

Intertemporal Solvency in the Small Open Economy of Australia

This paper employs cointegration and multicointegration analysis to explore the issue of external solvency in the small open economy of Australia. Results indicate that in the fixed exchangerate era exports and imports are multicointegrated while in the more recent floating exchange-rate period the series do not share a conventional long-run equilibrium relationship. The results are consistent with intertemporal external solvency in the early period and insolvency more recently. Sustainability criteria are reviewed. Indications are that low saving and investment rates may inhibit Australia's abiliry to sustain persistent external imbalances, however, recent fiscal adjustments may work to abate this problem.     

Logic of Aid in an Intertemporal Setting

The paper studies the welfare implications of temporary foreign aid in the context of a simple two‐country model of trade. In addition to its usual effects, a transfer of income in one period is assumed to influence the preferences of the recipient country in the following period. The implied changes in the terms of trade over the two periods are consistent with a number of possible outcomes with respect to the intertemporal welfare of the donor, the recipient, and the world as a whole. Particular attention is devoted to the conditions for strict Pareto improvement and the circumstances under which temporary aid transactions are likely to occur.     

Intertemporal complementarity and money in an economy out of equilibrium

The role of money clearly stands up in a truly irreversible process of economic change, like the building up of an altogether new productive capacity. Money has an essential role in this process, although not in the usual sense of modifying the real equilibria of the economy. As a matter of fact the problem to be faced in the context considered-where focus is on the process of change in itself rather than on its outcome-is theviability of the process of change. This paper shows that it is indeed the availability of financial resources at the right moment during the process that determines its viability, and that this stresses the fact that, out of equilibrium,real choices cannot be separated from financial decisions.     

Intertemporal consumption and debt aversion: an experimental study

This paper tests how subjects behave in an intertemporal consumption/saving experiment when borrowing is allowed and whether subjects treat debt differently than savings. Two treatments create environments where either saving or borrowing is required for optimal consumption. Since both treatments share the same optimal consumption levels, observed consumption choices can be directly compared across treatments. The experimental findings imply that deviations from optimal behavior are higher when subjects have to borrow than when they have to save in order to consume optimally, suggesting debt aversion. Signifiant under-consumption is observed when subjects have to borrow in order to reach optimal consumption. In line with previous experiments, weak evidence is found suggesting that subjects over-consume when saving is necessary for optimal consumption.     

Market Power,Permit Allocation and Efficiency in Emission Permit Markets

Market power in permit markets has been examined in some detail following the seminal work of Hahn (Q J Econ 99(4):753–765, 1984), but the effect of free allocation on price manipulation with market power in both product and permit market has not been fully addressed. I show that in this case, the threshold of free allocation above which a dominant firm will set the permit price above its marginal abatement costs is below its optimal emissions in a competitive market, and that overall efficiency cannot be achieved by means of permit allocation alone. In addition to being of general economic interest, this issue is relevant in the context of the EU ETS. I find that the largest German, UK and Nordpool power generators received free allowances in excess of the derived threshold. Conditional on having price-setting power in both the electricity and permit markets, these firms would have found it profitable to manipulate the permit price upwards despite being net permit buyers.     

Status,Risk-Taking and Intertemporal Substitution in an Endogenous Growth Model

This paper examines intertemporal risk-taking in a stochastically growing economy with externalities in human capital accumulation where agents have preferences for social status. In order to isolate the effects of status concerns on long-run expected growth, the analysis is embedded in a non-expected utility setting, which disentangles the effects from risk aversion and intertemporal substitution. We examine the interaction between status desire and risk, risk aversion and intertemporal substitution. The externalities generated by the status game are able to correct the allocative distortions from the knowledge spillovers.Acknowledgement The author would like to thank an anonymous referee for his valuable comments.     

Equivalence Scales in an Intertemporal Setting with an Application to the Former West Germany

Equivalence scales provide answers to questions like how much a household with two children needs to spend compared to a couple to attain the same welfare level. These are important questions for child allowances, social benefits and to assess the cost of children over the life-cycle for example. We discuss equivalence scales in an intertemporal setting with uncertainty. To estimate equivalence scales we use a panel from German households (GSOEP) containing subjective data on satisfaction with life and satisfaction with income to represent the welfare level. Because satisfaction is measured on a discrete scale we use limited dependent variable models for panel data in estimation. Using satisfaction with life data we find that larger households do not need any additional income to be as satisfied as a couple. Using satisfaction with income, however, yields equivalence scales that increase with household size.     

A Political Economy in an Ecological Web

Behavior matters more to environmental policy than most people think. This paper illustrates why this point needs repeating in four ongoing policy debates in the United States – Children's health risk, ozone/particulate matter (PM), climate change, and endangered species.     

Dynamic Effects of Tariff Liberalization: an Intertemporal Cge Approach*

The paper presents a multisectoral CGE model with overlapping generations in which intertemporal optimization by households and firms determines savings and investment under perfect foresight. We calibrate the model to Austrian data and simulate a unilateral tariff liberalization scenario. We find that unilateral tariff reductions are expansionary in the long-run but involve considerable diversity in sectoral adjustment. Foreign debt increases in the long-run, causing an improvement in the trade balance. In terms of welfare, some old generations gain at the expense of young and future generations. Budgetary policies are shown to be crucial for several effects.     

Optimal Monetary Policy, Taxes, and Public Debt in an Intertemporal Equilibrium

This article is devoted to a study of the optimal monetary and fiscal policies within the framework of an overlapping generations model with cash-in-advance constraints. We first characterize the intertemporal equilibrium. Then we show how to decentralize the optimal growth path using available policy instruments (i.e., labor income and capital taxes, public debt, money supply). Between the four instruments: wages and capital taxes, debt and monetary policy, one is redundant among the three last which implies that the Friedman Rule is only a special case.     

Decentralization in Pollution Permit Markets

A pollution permit market is decentralized when firms are allowed to trade permits across time, regions or pollutants. Using a model in which firms have better information about their abatement costs than a regulator, we develop a comparative advantage formula that delineates whether or not pollution permit markets should be decentralized. When the damage from pollution is described by a separable function, the formula implies a simple sufficient condition for not allowing decentralization.     

Intertemporal consumer behaviour in developing countries

This paper explores aggregate consumption behaviour in four developing countries under the assumption that consumers' planning horizons do not extend over their expected lifetime. Under certain conditions, the resulting ‘moving planning horizon model’ suggests that changes in current income would exert considerably more influence over current consumer spending than is predicted by forward-looking theories of consumption which typically assume that consumers' planning horizons coincide with expected lifetime. Estimation of the model for the group of developing countries provides empirical support for the role of changes in current income in influencing the consumption process. The results also reveal that consumers are relatively short-sighted sinced the length of the planning period of consumers ranges from just over ten months. An important implication of these findings is that policy measures can be effective not only if they influence consumers' permanent incomes but also if they affect changes in current income.