ANICET KABRE

Pollution in strategic multilateral exchange: taxing emissions or trading on permit markets?

Ludovic A. Julien, Anicet Kabre, Louis de Mesnard

Abstract

We introduce polluting emissions in a sequential noncooperative oligopoly model of bilateral exchange. In one sector a leader and a follower use polluting technologies which create negative externalities on the payoffs of strategic traders who belong to the other sector. By modeling emissions as a negative externality, we show that the leader pollutes more (less) than the follower when strategies are substitutes (complements). Then, we consider the implementation of public policies to control the levels of emissions, namely two taxation mechanisms and a permit market. We study the effects of these public policies. Moreover, we determine the conditions under which these public policies can implement a Pareto-improving allocation.

Mot(s) clé(s)

Stackelberg competition; pollution; fiscal policy; permit market

Cobb-Douglas preferences and pollution in a bilateral oligopoly market

Anicet Kabre

Abstract

In this note, we introduce pollution and examine its effects in a finite bilateral oligopoly model where agents have asymmetric Cobb-Douglas preferences. We define two strategic equilibria: the Stackelberg-Cournot equilibrium with pollution (SCEP) and the Cournot equilibrium with pollution (CEP). While the supplied quantities of the polluting and the non-polluting good depend on the preferences of all economic agents in the case of symmetric preferences, we show that when preferences are asymmetric, i) at both equilibria, each polluter’s equilibrium supply depends only on the non-polluters’ preferences for the non-polluting good; ii) at the CEP and the SCEP, the elasticity of the polluters emissions is greater when nonpolluters preferences for the non-polluting good increase, compared to an increase in their own preferences for this good; iii) firm’s emissions’elasticity decreases with the market power if their marginal cost is lower than their competitor.

Mot(s) clé(s)

Bilateral oligopoly; Pollution; Cobb-Douglas preferences