Optimal Management of Environmental Externalities with Time Lags and Uncertainty

Submitted by Eugenia Leon on

Many environmental externalities occur with time lags that can range from a few days to several centuries in length, and many of these externalities are also subject to uncertainty. In this paper, we examine the key features of an optimal policy to manage environmental externalities that are both lagged and stochastic.We develop a two-period, twopolluter model and obtain closed-form solutions for optimal emissions levels under different combinations of damage functions and stochastic processes.

Policy Design