Do Pollution Markets Harm Low Income and Minority Communities? Ranking Emissions Distributions Generated by California's RECLAIM Program / Erin T. Mansur, Glenn Sheriff.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Mansur, Erin T.

Contributor:

National Bureau of Economic Research.

Sheriff, Glenn.

Series:

Working Paper Series (National Bureau of Economic Research) no. w25666.

NBER working paper series no. w25666

Language:

English

Physical Description:

1 online resource: illustrations (black and white);

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, Mass. National Bureau of Economic Research 2019.

Summary:

We compare the spatial distribution of emissions from Southern California's pollution-trading program with that of a counterfactual command-and-control policy. We develop a normatively significant metric with which to rank the various distributions in a manner consistent with an explicit well-behaved preference structure. Results suggest trading benefited all demographic groups and generated a more equitable overall distribution of emissions even after controlling for its lower aggregate emissions. Upper-income and white demographics had more desirable distributions relative to low-income and some minority groups under the RECLAIM trading program, however, and population shifts over time may have undermined anticipated gains for African Americans.

Notes:

Print version record

March 2019.