CITRIS Research Exchange: Cap and Trade Programs, and Climate-Friendly Innovation

March 14, 2007: 12:00pm - 1:00pm
Location: 3110 Etcheverry Hall, UC Berkeley

Cap and Trade Programs and Climate-Friendly Innovation
Margaret Taylor [Assistant Professor of Public Policy, UC Berkeley

12:00 p.m. on March 14 in 3110 Etcheverry Hall at UC Berkeley.

Part of the CITRIS Research Exchange at UC Berkeley. The complete schedule for the spring semester is online at RE-Spring2007. Sponsored by Infineon Technologies.

Abstract:

Technological innovation in support of the environment will be a key component of the cost-effective mitigation of the greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to global climate change. In the current policy debate, political actors appear to have accepted, more or less without examination, the original expectation of economic theorists that cap-and-trade programs (CTPs), a type of emissions trading scheme, are more supportive of innovation than traditional environmental policy instruments. This talk will discuss how economic theory and empirical studies are starting to show mixed results on this issue. It will also characterize the innovation problem in climate change, explore the potential lessons for innovation that can be gleaned from the performance of existing air quality CTPs, and consider how various CTP design features under discussion could affect the innovation problem.