Santiago was one of the first cities outside the OECD to implement a tradable permit program to control air pollution. This paper looks closely at the program’s performance over the past ten years, stressing its similarities and discrepancies with trading programs implemented in developed...

Whether tradable permits are appropriate for transition and developing economies—given their special social and cultural circumstances, such as the lack of institutions and lack of expertise with market-based policies—is much debated. We conducted interviews and surveyed a sample of firms...

Santiago was one of the first cities outside the OECD to implement a tradable permit program to control air pollution. This paper looks closely at the program’s performance over the past ten years, stressing its similarities and discrepancies with trading programs implemented in developed...

In this study, I analyze the role of environmental policies and energy cost savings in the switch to natural gas by stationary sources in Chile. According to the data, most of the switching was induced by the lower cost of natural gas, although environmental policies played a small role and...

This paper analyzes the effects of the choice between price-based and quantity-based emissions regulations on compliance incentives and social welfare in the presence of incomplete enforcement and technology adoption. We show that if the regulator does not adjust the level of the policies in...

This study looks at the effects of the choice between taxes and permits on the pattern of adoption of a new (pollution) emissions abatement technology. It uses a dynamic setting, where the regulator observes the arrival and initial use of the technology and determines the optimal ex-post amount...

There are many situations where environmental authorities use a mix of environmental policy instruments, rather than one single instrument, to address environmental concerns. For example, one instrument may be used to reduce overall emissions of a pollutant while another is used to address...

We analyze two mechanism designs for refunding emission payments to polluting firms; Output Based (OB) and Expenditure Based (EB) refunding. In both instruments, emissions fees are returned to the polluting industry, possibly making the policy more easily accepted by policymakers than a standard...

This paper studies the Swedish prohibition of the hazardous solvent Trichloroethylene (TCE). Sweden is alone in completely prohibiting its use. The ban has been at best a partial success and illustrates the dilemmas of policymaking. Use has declined but not stopped, largely because the decision...

The Stern Review has had a major influence on the policy discussion on climate change. One reason is that the report has raised the estimated cost of unmitigated climate damages by an order of magnitude compared to most earlier estimates, leading to a call for strong and urgent action on climate...