Does China emission trading scheme reduce marginal abatement cost? A perspective of allowance allocation alternatives

Loading...

Date

2022-07-01

Journal Title

Journal ISSN

Volume Title

Repository Usage Stats

110
views
98
downloads

Citation Stats

Attention Stats

Abstract

Emission trading schemes (ETSs) are regarded as cost-effective environmental regulatory policies; however, because of the loose carbon allowances, it is up for debate whether China's carbon emission trading scheme (CETS) plays a cost-effective role in carbon emission reduction. This paper investigates how the marginal abatement cost (MAC) is changed by the China CETS from a perspective of alternative allowance allocation methods. The empirical strategy adopts the directional distance function and difference-in-difference (DID) analysis, coupled with the industry-by-province level data from 2008 to 2016. The roles of free-auction combined allowance allocation rules and free allocation in the MAC are explored. Furthermore, the heterogeneous effects of adopted free allocation in CETS, i.e., benchmarking (BENCH), emission-based grandfathering (EGRAND), and intensity-based grandfathering (IGRAND) on MAC of industries are investigated. The empirical findings disclose the following. First, China CETS results in an 8% decline in MAC for the regulated industrial sectors in pilot areas. Second, regulated industrial sectors allocated carbon allowances by free rule decrease their MAC by approximately 1%, while those allocated carbon allowances by free-auction combined rule increase their MAC by 11%. Meanwhile, of the free allocation alternatives, IGRAND causes a 24% increase in the MAC, while EGRAND and BENCH allocation methods lead to insignificant changes in the MAC for the regulated industrial sectors.

Department

Description

Provenance

Subjects

Citation

Published Version (Please cite this version)

10.1016/j.spc.2022.05.021

Publication Info

Peng, HR, J Cui and X Zhang (2022). Does China emission trading scheme reduce marginal abatement cost? A perspective of allowance allocation alternatives. Sustainable Production and Consumption, 32. pp. 690–699. 10.1016/j.spc.2022.05.021 Retrieved from https://hdl.handle.net/10161/26567.

This is constructed from limited available data and may be imprecise. To cite this article, please review & use the official citation provided by the journal.

Scholars@Duke

Cui

Jingbo Cui

Associate Professor of Applied Economics at Duke Kunshan University

Bio: Dr. Jingbo Cui is a tenured Associate Professor of Applied Economics at the Division of Social Sciences, Co-Director at the Environmental Research Center, and Director of Graduate Studies for the International Master of Environmental Policy (iMEP) program at Duke Kunshan University, Adjunct Professor and Ph.D. Supervisor at the School of Economics and Management at Wuhan University. Before the current position, he was a Chu-Tian Junior Scholar from the Department of Education in Hubei Province, an Associate Professor at the School of Economics and Management at Wuhan University, a Post-doctoral Research Associate, and a visiting scholar at Iowa State University. He holds a Ph.D. in economics from Iowa State University, an M.S. in economics from Wuhan University, and a B.S. in economics and mathematics from Huazhong University of Science and Technology, China.

Dr. Cui’s research centers on Environmental Economics, the Economics of Innovation, and the Economics of Climate Change. His recent research has delved into intriguing topics such as the drivers and obstacles to low-carbon innovation, the economic and environmental impacts of China's climate policy and risk. His scholarly contributions have been published in top-tier academic journals, including Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), American Economic Review Papers and ProceedingsJournal of Environmental Economics and ManagementAmerican Journal of Agricultural Economics, Environmental and Resource Economics, Journal of Regional Science, The World Economy, and Energy Economics. He has served as a referee for leading journals in Environmental Economics, Agricultural Economics, and Economics of Innovation (i.e., JEEM, AJAE, JAERE, Nature Climate Change, and Research Policy), as Associate Editor for the Environment and Development Economics, and a member of the editorial council in JAERE. His research projects have been funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (General Program, Junior Program, and Urgent Program) and the Jiangsu Qinglan Project.

 


Unless otherwise indicated, scholarly articles published by Duke faculty members are made available here with a CC-BY-NC (Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial) license, as enabled by the Duke Open Access Policy. If you wish to use the materials in ways not already permitted under CC-BY-NC, please consult the copyright owner. Other materials are made available here through the author’s grant of a non-exclusive license to make their work openly accessible.