Discussion paper

DP11802 Comparing Alternative Policies Against Environmental Catastrophes

We construct a model with three features important in the context of major environmental catastrophes: (1) the distribution of possible damage has a fat tail, (2) the probability of the catastrophic event increases as greenhouse gases accumulate, (3) a technological solution may emerge making conservation efforts unnecessary. We solve the model numerically for plausible values of the parameters, and evaluate the tradeoffs
between alternative policies such as prevention, mitigation, and technological fixes.

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Citation

Besley, T and A Dixit (2017), ‘DP11802 Comparing Alternative Policies Against Environmental Catastrophes‘, CEPR Discussion Paper No. 11802. CEPR Press, Paris & London. https://cepr.org/publications/dp11802

dried or dry cracked land with a growing young plant in the shape of a human head
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Climate polarisation and green investment

    ![](../../../../../../../../../../var/folders/34/zq18d8kx7kbgby0j06p_j6t40000gn/T/TemporaryItems/NSIRD_screencaptureui_EM2XPo/Screenshot 2022-01-04 at 17.01.16.png)
  • Climate Change
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  • Financial Markets
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  • Politics and economics