Demand uncertainty is thought to in uence irreversible capacity decisions. Suppose local demand can be sourced from domestic (rigid) production or from (fl exible) imports. This paper shows that the optimal domestic capacity is either increasing or decreasing with demand uncertainty depending on...

For carbon-intensive, internationally-traded industrial goods, a unilateral increase in the domestic CO2 price may result in the reduction of the domestic production but an increase of imports. In such sectors as electricity, cement or steel, the trade ows result more from short-term regional...

Competitiveness and carbon leakage are major concerns for the design of CO2 emissions permits markets. In absence of a global carbon tax and of border carbon adjustments, output based allocation is a third best solution and is actually implemented (Australia, California, New Zealand). The EU has...

This article analyzes the eff ect of risk and risk aversion on the long-term equilibrium technology mix in an electricity market. It develops a model where fi rms can invest in baseload plants with a fi xed variable cost and peak plants with a random variable cost, and demand for electricity...

The choice of a portfolio of technologies by risk averse firms is analyzed. Two technologies with random marginal costs are available to produce a homogeneous good. If the risks associated to the technologies are correlated firms might invest in a technology with a negative expected return or...

Climate mitigation is largely done through investments in low-carbon capital that will have long-lasting effects on emissions. In a model that represents explicitly low-carbon capital accumulation, optimal marginal investment costs differ across sectors. They are equal to the value of avoided...

This paper investigates incentives for firms to increase output above the activity level thresholds (ALTs) in order to obtain more free allowances in the EU Emissions Trading Scheme. While ALTs were introduced in order to reduce excess free allocation to low-activity installations, for...

La responsabilité sociale et environnementale de l'agriculture et des entreprises agro-alimentaires est aujourd'hui largement remise en question. Ce secteur économique est à la croisée des chemins compte tenu des nombreuses externalités environnementales de l'activité du secteur, des...

We present a methodology to assess the profitability of a capital intensive industry over a business cycle and to make projections of profitability for different investment strategies under various hypothetical scenarios for environmental and competition policies. The methodology is applied to...

The prospects for an international agreement within the United Nations Framework on Climate Change (UNFCCC) resulting in a common carbon price ‐ such as a global cap and trade scheme ‐ can for now only be seen as a long term goal. In the meantime, we have to work in a world of unilateral...