General Equilibrium Impacts of a Federal Clean Energy Standard
通过一般均衡模型分析，发现清洁能源标准在减排幅度较小时比碳税等定价手段更具成本效益，因为其对要素市场的扭曲更小。
Economists have tended to view emissions pricing (e.g., cap and trade or a carbon tax) as the most cost-effective approach to reducing greenhouse gas emissions. This paper offers a different view. Employing analytical and numerically solved general equilibrium models, it provides plausible conditions under which a more conventional form of regulation—namely, the use of a clean energy standard (CES)—is more cost-effective. The models reveal that the CES distorts factor markets less because it is a smaller implicit tax on factors of production. This advantage more than offsets the disadvantages of the CES when minor emissions reductions are involved.