Twenty Years of Market-based
Instruments for Environmental Protection:
Has the Promise Been
Realized?
Donald Bren School of Environmental Science
& Management
University of California, Santa Barbara
(Participation is by invitation only)
Professor
of Law, School of Law, UCLA and
Associate
Dean for Law and Policy, Bren School
&
Donald
Bren Professor of Environmental Economics & Policy, Bren
School
Environmental Economics
& Policy Program, Bren School, UCSB
Environmental Law &
Policy Program, Bren School, UCSB
Resources for the
Future
Efforts to comply with new federal
environmental requirements during the decade of the 1980s yielded
experimentation with market-based instruments (MBI) for pollution control,
particularly in the U.S. Then, in
the Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990, a major program for trading sulfur
emissions was introduced.
Additional trading programs for better managing natural resources
followed, particularly as applied to fisheries. Overall, the 1990s saw a tremendous
expansion of MBI programs.
In 2002, the European Union
decided to introduce the biggest trading program in the world: trading
greenhouse gas reduction obligations.
These programs have generated a great deal of optimism and widespread
acceptance of the superiority of MBI over command-and-control regulations for
managing natural environments. But
what do the data from these programs tell us?
This workshop will examine
our overall experience with MBI.
While there have been successes with MBI, there have also been
failures. Participants will explore
the extent to which MBI programs have really delivered on their promise to
produce environmental protection or abatement more efficiently than
command-and-control regulation.
We will take a critical look at the empirical work done in the last two
decades and see if the initial optimism about these mechanisms is still
warranted. Economists and
legal scholars from around the world will participate, and the proceedings will
be published in an edited volume.
SATURDAY, AUGUST 23,
2003
8:30-8:40 A.M.
Welcome
8:40-10:40 A.M. SESSION
I
Robert N. Stavins
(Harvard University) [Discussant:
Dan Farber, Minnesota]
"Market-Based
Environmental Policies: "What Can We Learn from U.S. Experience and
Related Research?"
Winston
Harrington (Resources for the
Future) [Disussant: David Driesen, Syracuse]
“International Experience
with Competing Approaches to Environmental Policy: Results From Six Paired
Cases”
Thomas Tietenberg
(Colby College) [Discussant: Jim
Salzman, American University]
“The Tradable Permits
Approach to Protecting the Commons: What Have we Learned?”
10:40-11:00 A.M. Coffee
Break
11:00-1:00 P.M. SESSION II
Nathaniel Keohane
(Yale) [Discussant: Maureen Cropper,
World Bank and Maryland]
"Environmental Impacts of
Policy-Directed Technique Choice: The 1990 Clean Air Act
and
the Distribution of Sulfur
Dioxide Emissions"
Richard G. Newell
(Resources for the Future) [Discussant: Denny Ellerman,
MIT]
"The U.S. Experience with
the Market-based Phasedown of Lead in Gasoline"
Jim Salzman
(American University) [Discussant:
Jason Johnston]
“ “Net Loss” -- Instrument
Choice in Wetlands Protection”
1:00-1:45 P.M.
Lunch
1:45-3:45 P.M.
SESSION III
Juan Pable Montero
(Universidad of Chile) [Discussant: JR
DeShazo, UCLA]
“Tradeable Permits with
Incomplete Monitoring: Theory and Evidence"
David M. Driesen (Syracuse University College of Law) [Discussant:
Magali Delmas, UCSB]
“Design, Trading, and
Innovation”
Catherine Kling
(Iowa State) [Discussant: Kathy
Segerson, Connecticut]
"Command and Control vs
Market Based Instruments in Agriculture"
3:45-4:00 P.M
Coffee Break
4:00-6:00 P.M.
SESSION IV
Denny Ellerman
(MIT) [ Discussant: Nat Keohane,
Yale]
“Are Tradeable Permits More
Environmentally Effective than Command-and-Control?"
Peter Menell
(UC Berkeley School of Law)
[Discussant: Michael Gerrard, Arnold & Porter]
"The Municipal Solid
Waste 'Crisis' in Retrospect: A Success Story for Market-Based
Mechanisms."
Kathleen Segerson
(University of Connecticut)
[Discussant: Winston Harrington, RFF]
“An Assessment of Voluntary
Approaches to Environmental Protection:
Evidence from the Clean Charles 2005 Project”
SUNDAY, AUGUST
24
9:00-11:00 P.M. SESSION
V
Jason Johnston
(University of PA Law School)
[Discussant: Richard Newell, RFF]
"Marketable Environmental
Use Rights and the Location of Economic Activity: Trading, Tipping, and the New
Economic Geography"
Daniel
Farber (University of Minnesota)
[Discussant: Peter Menell, UCB]
"Legal Constraints on
Environmental Trading Systems"
Michael Gerrard
(Arnold & Porter) [Discussant:
Tom Tietenberg, Colby]
"The Pervasive and Sometimes
Perverse Effects of Implicit Economic Incentives: A Practitioner's
Perspective"
11:00—12:00
Wrap Up [Freeman and Kolstad]
Informational
contact: Theresa Benevento (theresa@mit.edu)
Last updated: Aug 12,
2003