Environment

The social cost of carbon and inequality

The social cost of carbon is a monetary metric for the damage caused by the emission of an additional tonne of CO2. Previous literature has shown that accounting for inequality between countries significantly influences the social cost of carbon, but mostly omits heterogeneity below the national level. Using a model that features heterogeneity both between and within countries, this column demonstrates that climate and distributional policy can generally not be separated. In particular, it shows that a higher social cost of carbon may be called for globally under realistic expectations of existing inequality.

Reshaping European economic integration in the post-Covid world

Most of the discussion on the economic policy response to the pandemic in Europe has centred on its ambition, tools, and institutional characteristics. Less discussion has taken place on the factors shaping EU integration and economic policy priorities after the pandemic. In a new CEPR Policy Insight, the authors argue that four sets of issues will be important in shaping the legacy of the pandemic for European integration: redefining the new boundaries between state and market; revisiting the nature of subsidiarity; reconnecting the EU domestic with the global agenda; and learning to respond to longer term structural shifts.

The social cost of carbon and inequality

The social cost of carbon is a monetary metric for the damage caused by the emission of an additional tonne of CO2. Previous literature has shown that accounting for inequality between countries significantly influences the social cost of carbon, but mostly omits heterogeneity below the national level. Using a model that features heterogeneity both between and within countries, this column demonstrates that climate and distributional policy can generally not be separated. In particular, it shows that a higher social cost of carbon may be called for globally under realistic expectations of existing inequality.

Reshaping European economic integration in the post-Covid world

Most of the discussion on the economic policy response to the pandemic in Europe has centred on its ambition, tools, and institutional characteristics. Less discussion has taken place on the factors shaping EU integration and economic policy priorities after the pandemic. In a new CEPR Policy Insight, the authors argue that four sets of issues will be important in shaping the legacy of the pandemic for European integration: redefining the new boundaries between state and market; revisiting the nature of subsidiarity; reconnecting the EU domestic with the global agenda; and learning to respond to longer term structural shifts.

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