Browsing Working Papers by Title
Now showing items 1-20 of 334
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1996 update on compliance and emissions trading under the U.S. acid rain program
(MIT Center for Energy and Environmental Policy Research, 1998)November 1997This paper reports on the second year of compliance with the sulfur dioxide (SO2) emissions-reduction and -trading provisions of the Title IV of the 1990 Clean Air Act Amendments (CAAA). The material is intended ... -
$2.00 gas! : studying the effects of gas tax moratorium
(MIT Center for Energy and Environmental Policy Research, 2005)Despite the considerable attention paid to the theory of tax incidence, there are surprisingly few estimates of the pass-through rate of sales taxes on retail prices. This paper estimates the effect of a suspension and ... -
Adapting to Climate Change: The Remarkable Decline in the U.S. Temperature-Mortality Relationship over the 20th Century
(MIT CEEPR, 2012-01)Adaptation is the only strategy that is guaranteed to be part of the world's climate strategy. Using the most comprehensive set of data files ever compiled on mortality and its determinants over the course of the 20th ... -
The agency cost of alternative debt instruments
(MIT Center for Energy and Environmental Policy Research, 1990)In this paper we show how to adapt the traditional contingent claims valuation techniques to correctly value the firm and its liabilities in the presence of agency costs. This enables us to measure the significance of the ... -
Air quality, infant mortality, and the Clean Air Act of 1970
(MIT Center for Energy and Environmental Policy Research, 2003)We examine the effects of total suspended particulates (TSPs) air pollution on infant health using the air quality improvements induced by the 1970 Clean Air Act Amendments (CAAA). This legislation imposed strict regulations ... -
Allocation in Air Emissions Markets
(MIT Center for Energy and Environmental Policy Research, 2009-11) -
The allocation of European Union allowances : lessons, unifying themes and general principles
(MIT Center for Energy and Environmental Policy Research, 2006)On January 1st, 2005, the EU Emissions Trading Scheme (EU ETS) scheme was officially launched, only two years after the European Council adopted the EU Emissions Trading Directive (European Community 2003). As a consequence ... -
Allowance trading activity and state regulatory rulings : evidence from the U.S. Acid Rain Program
(MIT Center for Energy and Environmental Policy Research, 1996)The U.S. Acid Rain Program is one of the first, and by far the most extensive, applications of a market based approach to pollution control. From the beginning, there has been concern whether utilities would participate ... -
Allowance trading activity and state regulatory rulings : evidence from the U.S. Acid Rain Program
(MIT Center for Energy and Environmental Policy Research, 1998)The U.S. Acid Rain Program is one of the first, and by far the most extensive, applications of a market based approach to pollution control. From the beginning, there has been concern whether utilities would participate ... -
Analysis of the Bush proposal to reduce the SO₃ cap
(MIT Center for Energy and Environmental Policy Research, 2002)This paper evaluates President Bush's recent proposal to reduce the cap on total SO2 emissions using a model of emissions banking that fits the experience so far under Title IV. It provides a brief introduction to emissions ... -
An Approximate Dynamic Programming Framework for Modeling Global Climate Policy under Decision-Dependent Uncertainty
(MIT Center for Energy and Environmental Policy Research, 2011-09)Analyses of global climate policy as a sequential decision under uncertainty have been severely restricted by dimensionality and computational burdens. Therefore, they have limited the number of decision stages, discrete ... -
Are cap-and-trade programs more environmentally effective than conventional regulation?
(MIT Center for Energy and Environmental Policy Research, 2003)This paper considers the evidence and possible reasons that cap-and-trade programs are more effective in meeting environmental objectives than conventional prescriptive regulation. The evidence is based mostly, but not ... -
Assessment of U.S. cap-and-trade proposals
(MIT Center for Energy and Environmental Policy Research, 2007)The MIT Emissions Prediction and Policy Analysis model is applied to an assessment of a set of cap-and-trade proposals being considered by the U.S. Congress in spring 2007. The bills specify emissions reductions to be ... -
Auction design and favoritism
(MIT Center for Energy and Environmental Policy Research, 1989)The theory of auctions has ignored the fact that often auction designers, not the principal, design auctions. In a multi attribute auction, the auction designer may bias his subjective evaluation of quality or distort the ... -
Auction design and the market for sulfur dioxide emissions
(MIT Center for Energy and Environmental Policy Research, 1996)Title IV of the Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990 created a market for electric utility emissions of sulfur dioxide (SO2). Recent papers have argued that flaws in the design of the auctions that are part of this market have ... -
Auctions to gas transmission access : the British experience
(MIT Center for Energy and Environmental Policy Research, 2002)When access to monopoly owned networks is constrained auctioning access rights can increase the efficiency of allocations relative to negotiation and grandfathering when there is sufficient competition among network users. ... -
Black Gold & Fool’s Gold: Speculation in the Oil Futures Market
(MIT Center for Energy and Environmental Policy Research, 2009-09)This paper addresses the question of whether the oil price spike of 2003-2008 was a bubble. We document and discuss what is known about the level of speculation in the paper oil market. We then analyze the dynamics of the ... -
Book review : three books on global climate change
(MIT Center for Energy and Environmental Policy Research, 1993) -
California's electricity crisis
(MIT Center for Energy and Environmental Policy Research, 2001)The collapse of California's electricity restructuring and competition program has attracted attention around the world. Prices in California's competitive wholesale electricity market increased by 500% between the second ... -
Cap-and-Trade Properties under Different Scheme Designs
(MIT Center for Energy and Environmental Policy Research, 2009-11)This paper examines the key design mechanisms of existing and proposed cap-and-trade markets. First, it is shown that the hybrid systems under investigation (safety-valve with offsets, price floor using a subsidy, price ...
