The impact of administrative transaction costs in the EU emissions trading system     

Peter Heindl 《Climate Policy》2013,13(3):314-329

This article empirically investigates the impact of transaction costs for monitoring, reporting, and verification (MRV) of emissions on companies regulated by the EU Emissions Trading System (EU ETS) in Germany. Based on a unique panel dataset, we investigate if MRV costs are dependent on the amount of annual emissions of regulated companies and if there are differences in transaction costs between economic sectors. The results indicate that administrative costs are dependent on the amount of annual emissions for larger companies, which has implications for the economic efficiency of the EU ETS. The most important finding, however, is that there are significant differences in MRV transaction costs dependent on the type and size of companies. This implies the existence of considerable economies of scale. Overall, the EU ETS could benefit from reforms by means of a push towards upstream regulation as this would likely increase administrative efficiency.

Policy relevance statement

Transaction costs are, among other things, an important aspect of market-based climate policy design. A policy instrument with low transaction costs is preferred over instruments with larger transaction costs under equal conditions. This is occasionally referred to as administrative efficiency, and its importance was acknowledged in directive 2009/29/EC of the European Commission. Thoughtful empirical examination of transaction costs is essential in order to inform about the extent and impact of these costs. This article provides an analysis of transaction costs for monitoring, reporting, and verification (MRV) of emissions in the EU ETS. It is shown that administrative costs will likely have negative effects on the cost efficiency of the EU ETS. However, the most relevant finding is that small companies (<250 employees) or firms emitting small amounts of carbon dioxide per year face far higher average transaction costs compared with larger firms or emitters. Thus, there is a tendency for the EU ETS to cause MRV transaction costs that are disadvantageous for small companies. A regulation that is more upstream-oriented could mitigate this negative effect to some extent. The EU ETS could initiate a reform that is targeted on putting a price on the carbon content of fossil fuels instead of directly regulating emissions in a so-called ‘end-of-the-pipe’ way at the installation level.  相似文献   

A model of tunnel boring machine performance   总被引：2，自引：0，他引：2  

G. Wijk 《Geotechnical and Geological Engineering》1992,10(1):19-40

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Assessing the EU ETS with a bottom-up,multi-sector model     

Pablo Pintos  Pedro Linares 《Climate Policy》2018,18(4):413-424

The European Emissions Trading System (EU ETS) is the central pillar of the EU response against climate change. This trading mechanism is considered, from the theoretical point of view, as the most cost-effective method to reduce GHG. However, previous studies show that the agents who participate in these markets may behave in a way that may lead to inefficient CO₂ prices, creating doubts about the static and dynamic efficiency of the system. This article analyses these possible anomalies by first trying to model the ETS in a more realistic way, addressing some of the limitations of previous models, and second, by comparing the results with real market transactions. For this, a bottom-up, multi-sector model has been built, which represents the EU ETS in an integrated, cross-sectoral way, paying particular attention to the interactions among the most emissions intensive industries. The results show the benefits of this modelling approach and how it better reflects real market conditions. Some preliminary conclusions regarding the behaviour of the agents in the ETS market are also presented.

POLICY RELEVANCE

Low allowance prices in the EU ETS have put into question the dynamic efficiency of the EU ETS system, prompting various ideas for structural reform. However, determining the right reform also requires estimating correctly how agents will respond to it. This article proposes a tool to realistically simulate the EU ETS under the assumption of rational agents, and compare it to real market outcomes, in order to understand better the behaviour of agents in this carbon market, and therefore how to design better policies.  相似文献   

Negotiating conflict resolution mechanisms for transboundary water treaties: A transaction cost approach     

Charlotte De Bruyne  Itay Fischhendler 《Global Environmental Change》2013,23(6):1841-1851

Conflict resolution mechanisms are recognised as indispensable constituting elements of transboundary water agreements. Earlier studies confirm, however, that such mechanisms are either incomplete, unsophisticated or absent from treaties. We argue that transaction costs, which occur during treaty negotiation, may constitute a barrier to the adoption of conflict resolution mechanisms in water treaties. Transaction costs are never equal and depend largely on the context in which negotiations take place. A content analysis of the treaties in the Transboundary Freshwater Dispute Database demonstrates that the adoption of conflict resolution mechanisms to transboundary water treaties is not random, but may be affected by external factors that influence the transaction cost of negotiating such mechanisms. Water scarcity and a history of cooperative hydro-relations are factors that coincide with the presence of conflict resolution mechanisms in treaties and are therefore considered to lower transaction costs. External resource dependency is believed to stir transaction costs to such an extent that it prevents the adoption of mature mechanisms. The same goes for political freedom, political heterogeneity and the presence of colonial signatories as these factors correlate with mechanism absence and the adoption of a low number of conflict resolution mechanisms per treaty. The effect of hydrological variability resulted insignificant, indicating that variability remains largely ignored by negotiators of transboundary water treaties. Our research further shows that if a mechanism for conflict resolution contains one element of maturity (e.g. institutionalisation or an activation procedure based on a unilateral rule) other elements of maturity are also likely to be present, providing negotiators with an incentive to negotiate conflict resolution mechanisms with at least one mature characteristic. Finally, the adoption of a high number of mechanisms coincides with the presence of institutionalised forms for conflict resolution, supporting the incentive of negotiating more than two mechanisms per treaty.  相似文献   

Design principles for individual transferable quotas     

Ralph E. Townsend  James McColl  Michael D. Young 《Marine Policy》2006

Individual transferable quota (ITQ) institutions should be designed to minimize two types of transaction costs. First, to minimize the costs of transferring ITQ rights among rights-holders and users, rights should be separated into three components: a permanent entitlement share, an annual catch allocation, and a license to fish. Second, ITQ rights can reduce the transactions costs for development of self-governance by owners both by specifying a non-unanimous voting rule (preferably one-share/one-vote) and also by delineating clear standards for devolution of responsibility from government. These same two principles for reduction of transactions costs can be applied, with slight variation, to individual transferable input systems.  相似文献   

Influence of environment and fleet dynamics on catch rates of eastern Scotian Shelf cod through the early 1980s   总被引：1，自引：1，他引：1  

Gillis  D. M.; Frank  K. T. 《ICES Journal of Marine Science》2001,58(1):61-69

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Accessibility to basic services in one of the most sparsely populated areas in Europe: the province of Teruel (Spain)     

Ana Isabel Escalona-Orcao  Carmen Díez-Cornago 《Area》2007,39(3):295-309

This paper analyses local differences in access to basic health services in the province of Teruel (Spain), one of the most sparsely populated areas in Europe. The demographic decline and the concentration of the remaining population in the main settlements has meant that there is a high degree of spatial fit of supply and demand and average aggregate accessibility is good. However, access costs are high for the scarce and aged population resident in the most remote villages and hamlets scattered over an extensive and tacitly ignored territory. In such circumstances the demands of the inhabitants for more attention from the public authorities, expressed through the 'Teruel Exists' movement, can be readily understood.  相似文献   

On depletion of an exhausting natural resource     

Lester D. Taylor 《Natural Resources Research》1998,7(3):225-232

This paper addresses some of the issues currently surrounding natural resource depletion in national income accounting and makes an argument that user costs associated with exhausting natural resources ought not be treated as costs of production and subtracted from net national product in order to arrive at a “net” net national product. Depletion charges should be reflected in income accounts only to the extent that they are actually taken, in which case they should be treated as saving, rather than as a cost. Purely notional disappearances of natural resources should be recorded in off-balance sheet accounts or satellite accounts, not income statements. An earlier version of this paper was presented at the WSSA conference in Albuquerque, NM in April 1997.  相似文献   

地区工业发展与布局调控研究——以长江上游地区(四川重庆段)为例^*   总被引：1，自引：1，他引：0  

张雷  张文尝  李洪舰 《地理研究》1998,17(4):360-356

长期以来,我国地区工业及布局发展习惯于以产值增长为中心的思维模式,其结果造成了普遍的重复建设和大量的资产浪费。处于对这种传统思维模式的反思,文中以资本的实际运营效益为中心进行了长江上游地区工业发展与布局调控研究的探讨,以期探索一种新的发展思维模式。  相似文献   

Accessibility and land-use patterns at the forest fringe in the northeastern part of the Philippines   总被引：8，自引：0，他引：8  

Peter H Verburg  Koen P Overmars  Nol Witte 《The Geographical journal》2004,170(3):238-255

Accessibility is considered to be one of the most important determinants of use and land-cover change. In rural land-use change studies, the accessibility situation is often described by simple measures of the distance to a location of interest. In this paper, different measures of access are tested for a rural area at the forest fringe in the northeastern Philippines. The accessibility measures addressed range from simple distance measures to land-use type specific transport costs and a population potential measure. The different measures are tested based on their capacity to explain the spatial pattern of different land-use types. A comparison of the findings based on a spatial analysis and an analysis of household level data is made. It is concluded that the relation between land use and accessibility is dependent on the specific characteristics of the different land-use types. The (dis-)advantages of the use of the different accessibility measures are discussed.  相似文献