Discussion paper

DP20341 Profiting from Regulation: The Effects of Emissions Standards on Abatement R&D

This paper explores the impact of emissions standards on a firm’s output and abatement R&D investment decisions in a duopoly model, extending the work of Amir et al. (2023). It is shown that high upper limits on total emissions remove the firms’ incentives to invest in abatement R&D. This helps firms to coordinate on profit-increasing output levels relative to unregulated markets. Moreover, subsidies for abatement R&D may hurt firms, but improve welfare when the regulation is strict enough.

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Citation

Hardt, J, H Hoppe-Wewetzer and F Klapper (2025), ‘DP20341 Profiting from Regulation: The Effects of Emissions Standards on Abatement R&D‘, CEPR Discussion Paper No. 20341. CEPR Press, Paris & London. https://cepr.org/publications/dp20341