This paper investigates the implications of the materials balance for optimal environmental policy. We find that neglecting the materials–emissions relationship – as is common in models of optimal environmental regulation – implies biases, whose sign depends on the regulatory instrument...

Energy and climate policies are usually seen as measures to internalize externalities. However, as a side effect, these policies redistribute wealth between consumers and producers, and within these groups. While redistribution is seldom the focus of the academic literature in energy economics,...

We analyze the effects of a generalized class of negative consumption externalities (asymmetric and non-atmospheric) on the structure of effcient commodity tax programs. Households are not only concerned about consumption reference levels - that is, they gain utility from "keeping up with the...

We analyze the effects of a generalized class of negative consumption externalities (asymmetric and non-atmospheric) on the structure of efficient commodity tax programs. Households are not only concerned about consumption reference levels - that is, they gain utility from "keeping up with the...

Relative consumption effects or status concerns that feature jealousy (in the sense of Dupor and Liu, AER 2003) boost consumption expenditure. If consumption is financed by labour income, such status considerations increase labour supply and, hence, the tax base. A higher taxable income, in...

Cet article intègre la question environnementale à l’étude de secteurs caractérisés par des producteurs de bien vierge avec un pouvoir de marché, confrontés à un secteur du recyclage. On utilise un modèle où la production de bien vierge par un monopole est polluante, contrairement à...

Relative consumption effects or status concerns that feature jealousy (in the sense of Dupor and Liu, 2003) boost consumption expenditure. If consumption is financed by labour income, such status considerations increase labour supply and, hence, the tax base. A higher taxable income, in turn,...

Cet article analyse l’activité de recyclage dans un cadre d’équilibre général. Nous montrons que l’État doit subventionner les récupérateurs recycleurs si ceuxci supportent des coûts trop élevés, afin de les inciter à récupérer et à recycler tout le gisement disponible de...

This paper extends the Mirrlees (1971) model of optimal income redistribution with optimal corrective taxes to internalize consumption externalities. It is demonstrated that the optimal second-best tax on an externality-generating good should not be corrected for the marginal cost of public...

Climate change, security and cost of energy supplies, and the competitiveness of firms and economies have been focal points of the general political and economic policy debate in recent years. This article examines the choices in this field made at global level with the Kyoto Protocol and in...