An annual discriminative and revenue-neutral auction is linked to the new Acid Rain Program which allows electric utilities all over the US to trade SO2 emission permits. This innovative SO2 auction distributes 2% of the permits in circulation and takes place at the Chicago Board of Trade.

Two main results in traditional tax theory states the following. First, general taxes minimize the welfare loss from changed relative prices. Second, because the total public budget tends to exceed the optimal size, a leader (here named "troop leader") is needed in the budget process to prevent...

The Kyoto Protocol of December 1997 allows emission trade between countries that have committed themselves to an emission ceiling. This paper considers two schemes of emission trading: trade between goverments and trade between emision sources. The two schemes are analyzed and the strengths and...

This paper analyzes what the effect of the inclusion of emissions trading in an international environmental agreement has on the abatement commitments of the trading countries and on aggregate emissions. We discuss, in a very general model, both the case where countries non-cooperatively set...