I embed a electricity certificate system, mandating that a certain fraction of total electricity production must come from renewable sources, in a stylized competitive economy and derive a general equilibrium cost-benefit rule from perturbing the regulation. The welfare consequences (ignoring...

We review the properties of the conventional static measure of changes in economic welfare, national income, in a dynamic economy. We show that it is possible to establish attractive welfare properties by rather simple arguments and that this variable can be estimated from current data. Its...

Large data centers enjoy government support in many countries. These centers are not laborintensive, but energy-intensive, thus tending to push up electricity prices and possibly crowding out labor-intensive firms. In addition, when owned by multinational companies, profits are difficult to tax...

In this note we discuss how a cost–benefit analysis could be formulated in a second-best world where lump-sum taxation is not available. The question is how the government's budget is balanced. Different options are available. A value added tax or an income tax or a profit tax could be...