A paler shade of green: Environmental policy under induced technical change

C. Di Maria, Sjak Smulders

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleScientificpeer-review

3 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Conventional wisdom argues that environmental policy is less costly if it induces the development of cleaner technologies. In contrast to this argument, we show that once the second-best nature of actual economies is taken into account, the cost of environmental policy may well be larger with induced technical change (ITC) than without. Thus, ITC may lower both the emissions reductions and the welfare gains associated with environmental policy. In an endogenous policy framework, ITC may reduce the desired stringency of the policy.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)151-169
JournalEuropean Economic Review
Volume99
Early online date22 Jan 2017
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Oct 2017

Keywords

  • environmental policy
  • innovation policy
  • induced technical change
  • pollution-saving technical change
  • pollution-using technical change
  • crowding-out
  • second-best policy

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