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Prices vs. quantities in presence of a second, unpriced, externality

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  • Guy Meunier

    (X - École polytechnique - IP Paris - Institut Polytechnique de Paris, ALISS - Alimentation et sciences sociales - INRA - Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique)

Abstract

We study a situation in which two goods jointly generate an externality but only one of them is regulated. Unilateral regulation of greenhouse gas emissions and related carbon leakage is a well known example. We compare tax and quantity instruments under uncertainty à la Weitzman (1974). Because of the uncertainty surrounding the unregulated good, the external cost is stochastic with both instruments. Whether the unregulated good quantity is more or less variable under a tax or under a quota depends on the degree of substitutability and the correlation between uncertainties on private valuations. In case of a positive correlation and imperfect substitution, a tax better stabilize the unregulated good quantity and can therefore dominate a quota when the slope of the external cost associated to the unregulated good is large. In a specification, relevant for leakage, it is shown that if uncertainty about the unregulated good (imports) is large, a tax might be preferable to a quota, regardless of the convexity of the external cost.

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  • Guy Meunier, 2015. "Prices vs. quantities in presence of a second, unpriced, externality," Working Papers hal-01242040, HAL.
    • Handle: RePEc:hal:wpaper:hal-01242040
    Note: View the original document on HAL open archive server: https://hal.science/hal-01242040
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    Cited by:

    1. Zhang, Xiao-Bing & Xu, Jing, 2018. "Optimal policies for climate change: A joint consideration of CO2 and methane," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 211(C), pages 1021-1029.

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    Keywords

    Environmental regulation; Tax ; Quotas; Multi-pollutant; Carbon leakage;
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