Do Pollution Markets Harm Low Income and Minority Communities? Ranking Emissions Distributions Generated by California's RECLAIM Program

Author / Creator

Mansur, Erin T

Available as

Online

Summary

We compare the spatial distribution of emissions from Southern California's pollution-trading program with that of a counterfactual command-and-control policy. We develop a normatively significant ...

We compare the spatial distribution of emissions from Southern California's pollution-trading program with that of a counterfactual command-and-control policy. We develop a normatively significant metric with which to rank the various distributions in a manner consistent with an explicit well-behaved preference structure. Results suggest trading benefited all demographic groups and generated a more equitable overall distribution of emissions even after controlling for its lower aggregate emissions. Upper-income and white demographics had more desirable distributions relative to low-income and some minority groups under the RECLAIM trading program, however, and population shifts over time may have undermined anticipated gains for African Americans.

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