Starting in 2005, the EU will implement a CO2 emissions trading scheme. In this paper we show that the outspoken goals of economic efficiency and free allocation of allowances are incompatible with harmonized allocation rules. In general, the assignment of allowances is endogenous and differs...

Starting in 2005, the EU will implement a CO<Subscript>2</Subscript> emissions trading scheme. We show that the outspoken objectives of economic efficiency and free allocation of allowances are incompatible with harmonized allocation rules. The latter would be necessary to avoid unequal changes of the financial...</subscript>