Firm Competitiveness and the European Union Emissions Trading Scheme

The European Union Emissions Trading Scheme is the first international cap-and-trade program for CO2 and the largest carbon pricing regime in the world. A principle concern over the Emissions Trading Scheme is the potential impact on the competitiveness of industry. Using a panel of 5873 firms in 10...

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Main Authors: Chan, Hei Sing, Li, Shanjun, Zhang, Fan
Format: Journal Article
Language:en_US
Published: Elsevier 2013
Subjects:
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/10986/16209
id okr-10986-16209
recordtype oai_dc
spelling okr-10986-162092021-04-23T14:03:28Z Firm Competitiveness and the European Union Emissions Trading Scheme Chan, Hei Sing Li, Shanjun Zhang, Fan cap and trade EU emissions trading scheme firm competitiveness The European Union Emissions Trading Scheme is the first international cap-and-trade program for CO2 and the largest carbon pricing regime in the world. A principle concern over the Emissions Trading Scheme is the potential impact on the competitiveness of industry. Using a panel of 5873 firms in 10 European countries during 2001–2009, this paper seeks to assess the impact of the carbon regulation on three variables through which the effects on firm competitiveness may manifest—unit material costs, employment and revenue. Our analysis focuses on three most polluting industries covered under the program-power, cement, and iron and steel. Empirical results indicate that the emissions trading program had different impacts across these three sectors. While no impacts are found on any of the three variables in cement and iron and steel industries, our analysis suggests a positive effect on both material costs and revenue in the power sector: the effect on material costs likely reflects the costs to comply with emissions constraints or other parallel renewable incentive programs while that on revenue may partly due to cost pass-through to consumers in a market less exposed to competition outside EU. Overall our findings do not substantiate concerns over carbon leakage, job loss and industry competitiveness at least during the study period. 2013-11-04T16:20:38Z 2013-11-04T16:20:38Z 2013-09-12 Journal Article Energy Policy 0301-4215 http://hdl.handle.net/10986/16209 en_US CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 IGO http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/igo/ World Bank Elsevier Publications & Research :: Journal Article Publications & Research European Union
repository_type Digital Repository
institution_category Foreign Institution
institution Digital Repositories
building World Bank Open Knowledge Repository
collection World Bank
language en_US
topic cap and trade
EU emissions trading scheme
firm competitiveness
spellingShingle cap and trade
EU emissions trading scheme
firm competitiveness
Chan, Hei Sing
Li, Shanjun
Zhang, Fan
Firm Competitiveness and the European Union Emissions Trading Scheme
geographic_facet European Union
description The European Union Emissions Trading Scheme is the first international cap-and-trade program for CO2 and the largest carbon pricing regime in the world. A principle concern over the Emissions Trading Scheme is the potential impact on the competitiveness of industry. Using a panel of 5873 firms in 10 European countries during 2001–2009, this paper seeks to assess the impact of the carbon regulation on three variables through which the effects on firm competitiveness may manifest—unit material costs, employment and revenue. Our analysis focuses on three most polluting industries covered under the program-power, cement, and iron and steel. Empirical results indicate that the emissions trading program had different impacts across these three sectors. While no impacts are found on any of the three variables in cement and iron and steel industries, our analysis suggests a positive effect on both material costs and revenue in the power sector: the effect on material costs likely reflects the costs to comply with emissions constraints or other parallel renewable incentive programs while that on revenue may partly due to cost pass-through to consumers in a market less exposed to competition outside EU. Overall our findings do not substantiate concerns over carbon leakage, job loss and industry competitiveness at least during the study period.
format Journal Article
author Chan, Hei Sing
Li, Shanjun
Zhang, Fan
author_facet Chan, Hei Sing
Li, Shanjun
Zhang, Fan
author_sort Chan, Hei Sing
title Firm Competitiveness and the European Union Emissions Trading Scheme
title_short Firm Competitiveness and the European Union Emissions Trading Scheme
title_full Firm Competitiveness and the European Union Emissions Trading Scheme
title_fullStr Firm Competitiveness and the European Union Emissions Trading Scheme
title_full_unstemmed Firm Competitiveness and the European Union Emissions Trading Scheme
title_sort firm competitiveness and the european union emissions trading scheme
publisher Elsevier
publishDate 2013
url http://hdl.handle.net/10986/16209
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