This paper shows that tradable emissions permits and an emissions tax affect the firms' technology choice differently under uncertainty. A tax encourages the most flexible technology if and only if stochastic costs and the equilibrium permit price have sufficiently strong positive covariance,...

Authorities often lack information for efficient regulation of the commons. This paper derives a criterion comparing prices versus tradable quantities in terms of expected welfare, given uncertainty, optimal policy and endogenous cost structure. I show that one cannot determine which regulatory...

Authorities often lack information for efficient regulation of the commons. This paper derives a criterion comparing prices versus tradable quantities in terms of expected welfare, given uncertainty, optimal policy and endogenous cost structure. I show that one cannot determine which regulatory...

This paper examines the investment incentives of market-based regulation, with focus on the technology characteristics the different regulatory schemes tend to incentivize. The firms' technology choice is socially optimal if and only if the aggregate emission allowance supply is completely...

This paper shows that tradable emissions permits and an emissions tax have a risk-related technology choice effect. We first examine the first- and second-order moments in the probability distributions of optimal abatement and production under the two instruments. The two instruments will, in...

This paper shows that tradable emissions permits and an emissions tax affect the firms' technology choice differently under uncertainty. A tax encourages the most flexible technology if and only if stochastic costs and the equilibrium permit price have sufficiently strong positive covariance,...

Authorities often lack information for efficient regulation of the commons. This paper derives a criterion comparing prices versus tradable quantities in terms of expected welfare, given uncertainty, optimal policy and endogenous cost structure. I show that one cannot determine which regulatory...