Sacred Cars? Cost-Effective Regulation of Stationary and Nonstationary Pollution Sources
For political and practical reasons, environmental regulations sometimes treat point-source polluters, such as power plants, differently from mobile-source polluters, such as vehicles. This paper measures the extent of this regulatory asymmetry in the case of nitrogen oxides (NOx), the most recalcit...
| Main Authors: | , , |
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| Other Authors: | |
| Format: | Article |
| Language: | en_US |
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American Economic Association
2012
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| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/75221 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7654-8641 |
| _version_ | 1826199338955571200 |
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| author | Fowlie, Meredith Knittel, Christopher Roland Wolfram, Catherine |
| author2 | Sloan School of Management |
| author_facet | Sloan School of Management Fowlie, Meredith Knittel, Christopher Roland Wolfram, Catherine |
| author_sort | Fowlie, Meredith |
| collection | MIT |
| description | For political and practical reasons, environmental regulations sometimes treat point-source polluters, such as power plants, differently from mobile-source polluters, such as vehicles. This paper measures the extent of this regulatory asymmetry in the case of nitrogen oxides (NOx), the most recalcitrant criteria air pollutant in the United States. We find significant differences in marginal abatement costs across source types: the marginal cost of reducing NOx from cars is less than half the marginal cost of reducing NOx from power plants. Our results measure the possible efficiency gains and distributional implications associated with increasing the sectoral scope of environmental regulations. |
| first_indexed | 2024-09-23T11:18:13Z |
| format | Article |
| id | mit-1721.1/75221 |
| institution | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| language | en_US |
| last_indexed | 2024-09-23T11:18:13Z |
| publishDate | 2012 |
| publisher | American Economic Association |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | mit-1721.1/752212022-09-27T18:34:52Z Sacred Cars? Cost-Effective Regulation of Stationary and Nonstationary Pollution Sources Fowlie, Meredith Knittel, Christopher Roland Wolfram, Catherine Sloan School of Management Knittel, Christopher Roland For political and practical reasons, environmental regulations sometimes treat point-source polluters, such as power plants, differently from mobile-source polluters, such as vehicles. This paper measures the extent of this regulatory asymmetry in the case of nitrogen oxides (NOx), the most recalcitrant criteria air pollutant in the United States. We find significant differences in marginal abatement costs across source types: the marginal cost of reducing NOx from cars is less than half the marginal cost of reducing NOx from power plants. Our results measure the possible efficiency gains and distributional implications associated with increasing the sectoral scope of environmental regulations. 2012-12-05T16:45:03Z 2012-12-05T16:45:03Z 2012-02 Article http://purl.org/eprint/type/JournalArticle 1945-7731 1945-774X http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/75221 Fowlie, Meredith, Christopher R Knittel, and Catherine Wolfram. “Sacred Cars? Cost-Effective Regulation of Stationary and Nonstationary Pollution Sources.” American Economic Journal: Economic Policy 3.4 (2012): 98–126. Web. https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7654-8641 en_US http://dx.doi.org/ 10.1257/pol.4.1.98 American Economic Journal: Economic Policy Article is made available in accordance with the publisher's policy and may be subject to US copyright law. Please refer to the publisher's site for terms of use. application/pdf American Economic Association AEA |
| spellingShingle | Fowlie, Meredith Knittel, Christopher Roland Wolfram, Catherine Sacred Cars? Cost-Effective Regulation of Stationary and Nonstationary Pollution Sources |
| title | Sacred Cars? Cost-Effective Regulation of Stationary and Nonstationary Pollution Sources |
| title_full | Sacred Cars? Cost-Effective Regulation of Stationary and Nonstationary Pollution Sources |
| title_fullStr | Sacred Cars? Cost-Effective Regulation of Stationary and Nonstationary Pollution Sources |
| title_full_unstemmed | Sacred Cars? Cost-Effective Regulation of Stationary and Nonstationary Pollution Sources |
| title_short | Sacred Cars? Cost-Effective Regulation of Stationary and Nonstationary Pollution Sources |
| title_sort | sacred cars cost effective regulation of stationary and nonstationary pollution sources |
| url | http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/75221 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7654-8641 |
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