The Incidence of U.S. Climate Policy: Alternative Uses of Revenues from a Cap-and-Trade Auction

41 Pages Posted: 21 Apr 2009 Last revised: 24 Jun 2009

See all articles by Dallas Burtraw

Dallas Burtraw

Resources for the Future

Richard Sweeney

Resources for the Future

Margaret Walls

Resources for the Future - Quality of the Environment Division

Date Written: April 9, 2009

Abstract

This paper evaluates the costs to households of a carbon dioxide (CO2) cap-and-trade program. We find important variation in the distribution of costs of the policy across 11 regions of the country and income deciles. The introduction of a price on CO2 is regressive, but this may be outweighed by the distribution value of CO2 emissions allowances. We evaluate five alternatives: three are progressive (expansion of the Earned Income Tax Credit and cap-and-dividend approaches), while the others are neutral (reduction in payroll tax) or amplify the regressivity (reduction in income tax). Regional differences are most substantial for low-income households.

Keywords: cap-and-trade, allocation, distributional effects, cost burden, equity

JEL Classification: H22, H23, Q52, Q54

Suggested Citation

Burtraw, Dallas and Sweeney, Richard and Walls, Margaret, The Incidence of U.S. Climate Policy: Alternative Uses of Revenues from a Cap-and-Trade Auction (April 9, 2009). RFF Discussion Paper No. 09-17-REV, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1392251

Dallas Burtraw (Contact Author)

Resources for the Future ( email )

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Richard Sweeney

Resources for the Future ( email )

1616 P Street, NW
Washington, DC 20036
United States

Margaret Walls

Resources for the Future - Quality of the Environment Division ( email )

1616 P Street, NW
Washington, DC 20036
United States

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