Stavins, Robert N, and Richard Schmalensee. “
Renewable Irony.”
The Huffington Post, 2010.
Publisher's VersionAbstractThose who believe that renewable electricity standards would create a huge number of green jobs have forgotten the lesson of Detroit: a large domestic market does not guarantee a healthy domestic industry.
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Stavins, Robert N. “
Why Cancun Trumped Copenhagen: Warmer Relations on Rising Temperatures.”
Christian Science Monitor (2010).
Publisher's VersionAbstractThe climate change talks in Cancun, Mexico, didn’t solve all the world’s climate problems. But they were hugely successful. Through the Cancun Agreements, 194 countries reached landmark consensus (even the US and China) to set emissions targets and limit global temperature increases.
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Stavins, Robert N, and Robert W Hahn. “
Why Cap-and-Trade Should (and Does) Have Appeal to Politicians.”
VoxEU.org, 2010.
Publisher's VersionAbstractAre cap-and-trade schemes working? This column presents a summary of eight existing schemes arguing that half meet the independence property whereby the initial allocation of property rights does not affect the environmental or social outcome and the scheme is cost-effective. This success is a contrast with other policy proposals where political bargaining reduces the effectiveness and drives up cost.
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Reinhardt, Forest L, and Robert N Stavins. “
Corporate Social Responsibility, Business Strategy, and the Environment.”
Oxford Review of Economic Policy 26 (2010): 164 –181.
Publisher's VersionAbstractWe examine the concept of firms sacrificing profits in the social interest within the environmental realm, with particular focus on the case of the United States by addressing four key questions. May they do so within the scope of their fiduciary responsibilities to their shareholders? Can they do so on a sustainable basis, or will the forces of a competitive marketplace render such efforts and their impacts transient at best? Do firms, in fact, frequently or at least sometimes behave this way, reducing their earnings by voluntarily engaging in environmental stewardship? Should firms carry out such profit-sacrificing activities (i.e. is this an efficient use of social resources)? We address these questions through the lens of economics, including insights from legal and business scholarship.
reinhardt_stavins_in_oxford_review_2010.pdf Stavins, Robert N. “
Options for the Institutional Venue for International Climate Negotiations.” Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA: Harvard Project on Climate Agreements, 2010.
Publisher's VersionAbstractIt is exceptionally challenging to conclude a comprehensive and effective multilateral agreement to address global climate change among nations with divergent interests. This is true for many international issues. However, largely because any domestic policy or set of policies to mitigate greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions (whether intended to implement an international agreement or not) extend so deeply into the economic fabric of a nation, climate change negotiations have proven to be exceptionally difficult. The Fifteenth Conference of the Parties (COP-15) of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) reinforced doubts about whether the UNFCCC should continue to be the primary institutional venue for global climate change negotiations. This issue brief assesses some other institutions that might serve to supplement or partially replace the UNFCCC.
stavins-issue-brief-3.pdf Aldy, Joseph E, and Robert N Stavins, ed. Post-Kyoto International Climate Policy: Implementing Architectures for Agreement. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2010.