This study presents new, nearly EU wide estimates of the level of subsidies to company cars. In addition, it also provides some preliminary rough illustrations of the possible effects of such subsidies on economic welfare and environment and discusses the policy implications.

We investigate the displacement effects of phase-out-of-coal policies in a stylized model of electricity generation and CO2 regulation, in which a group of countries operates an emissions trading scheme (ETS). Electricity markets are either international or national and the emissions cap remains...

We investigate the displacement effects of phase-out-of-coal policies in a stylized model of electricity generation and CO2 regulation, in which a group of countries operates an emissions trading scheme (ETS). Electricity markets are either international or national and the emissions cap remains...

International offset certificates trade at lower prices than European Union Allowances (EUAs), although they are substitutes within the EU Emissions Trading System (EU ETS) for CO2. Firms therefore had a strong incentive to use the cheaper certificates. However, a considerable number of firms...

Given that the carbon price in the EU Emissions Trading System is only around 5€/tCO2 while consensus about a more stringent EU climate policy is very unlikely in the near future, we explore the potential scope and optimal design of additional national climate policies in the current EU policy...

Environmental protection is one of Europe's key values. The EU has set clear policy objectives to achieve its environmental goals. The EU has favoured market-based instruments, among which fiscal instruments to tackle the climate change problem. This paper takes a policy-making perspective and...

With the new rules of the EU ETS, involving cancellation of allowances, cumulative emissions are no longer fixed but depending on the market outcome. Perino (2018) showed that additional abatement effort can reduce cumulative emissions if it occurs within a few years. This article shows that...

The Water Framework Directive (WFD) explicitly acknowledges the role of economics in the process of reaching the environmental quality objectives. The purpose of this paper is to discuss the implementation of the WFD in Sweden based on standard economic theory regarding instruments for cost...

The debate on the European Union Emissions Trading Scheme (EU ETS) is blurred, over-simplified and sometimes misguided. There appears to be confusion about what the EU ETS should deliver, whether it is effective in doing so, and how the scheme should be characterized. In our paper we aim to...

In December 2019 the incoming European Commission announced the European Green Deal (EGD), which aims to turn the EU into a climate-neutral, circular economy. Although it is as yet not very specific in many areas, the EU's Green Deal sends the right signal and contains several promising...