"Seminal work by Weitzman (1974) revealed prices are preferred to quantities when marginal benefits are relatively flat compared to marginal costs. We extend this comparison to indexed policies, where quantities are proportional to an index, such as output. We find that policy preferences hinge...

Quantity-based regulation with banking allows regulated firms to shift obligations across time in response to periods of unexpectedly high or low marginal costs. Despite its wide prevalance in existing and proposed emission trading programs, banking has received limited attention in past welfare...

Welfare comparisons of regulatory instruments under uncertainty have typically focused on price versus quantity controls. This is true even in dynamic analyses of cumulative pollutants and despite the presence of banking and to some extent borrowing provisions in existing emission trading...

Seminal work by Weitzman (1974) revealed prices are preferred to quantities when marginal benefits are relatively flat compared to marginal costs. We extend this comparison to indexed policies, where quantities are proportional to an index, such as output. We find that policy preferences hinge...