Recent literature has investigated whether the welfare gains from environmental taxation are larger or smaller in a second-best setting than in a first-best setting. This question has mainly been addressed indirectly, by asking whether the second-best optimal environmental tax is higher or lower...

Land-use regulations are contentious everywhere because of their potential negative effects on private property values. In recent years, so-called pay or waive compensation legislation was passed in a number of US states, requiring governments to compensate property owners for losses due to...

This paper examines biofuels from an economic perspective and evaluates the merits of promoting biofuel production in the context of the policies’ multiple objectives, life-cycle implications, pecuniary externalities, and other unintended consequences. The policy goals most often cited are to...

Based on a model where climate change affects productivity, the second-best optimal carbon tax is found to exceed marginal social damage by 53% and ‘‘marginal private damage’’ (aggregate households’ willingness to pay) by 73%. Annual welfare gains are estimated at $3.58 billion when...