Pollution Permits, Strategic Trading and Dynamic Technology Adoption

Luca Taschini (London School of Economics)

Riccardo Faini CEIS Seminars

Riccardo Faini CEIS Seminars
When

Friday, November 18, 2011 h. 12:00-13:30

Where
Aula B - Primo piano
Description

This paper analyzes the dynamic incentives for technology adoption under a transferable permits system, which allows for strategic trading on the permit market. Initially, fi rms can invest both in low-emitting production technologies and trade permits. In the model, technology adoption and allowance price are generated endogenously and are inter-dependent. It is shown that the non-cooperative permit trading game possesses a pure-strategy Nash equilibrium, where the allowance value reflects the level of uncovered pollution (demand), the level of unused allowances (supply), and the technological status. These conditions are also satisfi ed when a price support instrument, which is contingent on the adoption of the new technology, is introduced. Numerical investigation confi rms that this policy generates a floating price floor for the allowances, and it restores the dynamic incentives to invest. Given that this policy comes at a cost, a criterion for the selection of a self-fi nancing policy (based on convex risk measures) is proposed and implemented.

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