This paper analyzes the choice of pollution control techniques by regulated firms, under three policy instruments: emissions standards, emissions taxes, and tradeable permit systems. In this model, heterogeneous firms choose from a menu of abatement techniques, which may include some that have...

Financing the transition to low-carbon economic development must be the focus of any framework to encourage developing countries' participation in the global carbon market. It needs to do so with the aim of eventual full participation in carbon markets while maintaining the core market's...

Intro -- About Island Press -- Foundations of Contemporary Environmental Studies -- Title Page -- Copyright -- Contents -- Preface -- Chapter 1: Introduction -- Chapter 2: Economic Efficiency and Environmental Protection -- Chapter 3: The Benefits and Costs of Environmental Protection -- Chapter...

Our analysis melds two traditional approaches to promoting quality. The first is restoring the stock of quality. The second is curbing its flow of deterioration. Although both approaches are widely used in real world settings, analytic models have tended to focus on one strategy or the other. We...

"This paper explores firms' response to regulatory enforcement. New Source Review (NSR), a provision of the Clean Air Act, imposes stringent emissions limitations on significantly modified older power plants. In 1999, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) sued owners of 46 plants for NSR...

Conventional hedonic techniques for estimating the value of local amenities rely on the assumption that households move freely among locations. We show that when moving is costly, the variation in housing prices and wages across locations may no longer reflect the value of differences in local...

Title IV of the 1990 Clean Air Act instituted a nationwide system of tradeable pollution permits for sulfur dioxide emitted by electric power plants. This paper asks: What were the cost savings from using a market-based instrument, rather than a more conventional prescriptive approach? Using an...

In this paper we investigate whether sellers treat consumers differently on the basis of how well-informed consumers appear to be. We implement a large-scale field experiment in which callers request price quotes from automotive repair shops. We show that sellers alter their initial price quotes...

Many consumers are keenly aware of gasoline prices, and consumer responses to gasoline prices have been well studied. In this paper, by contrast, we investigate how gasoline prices affect the automobile industry: manufacturers and dealerships. We estimate how changes in gasoline prices affect...