The authors analyze the carbon emission, energy market and economic implications of carbon tax proposal introduced by U.S. Rep. Carlos Corbels (R-Florida). The working paper was released as part of a collaboration between Columbia University’s Center on Global Energy Policy, the Rhodium Group and the Baker Institute.
Since the progressivity of the sales tax is difficult to directly measure, this paper introduces an indirect approach combining simulated household income with realizations of consumption behavior from survey data.
In an economy with heterogeneous firms and heterogeneous consumers, the authors describe a general equilibrium where firm equity is priced by a supply and demand process. With a model robust to arbitrary, nonlinear tax functions, they investigate the efficiency of replacing the current U.S. tax regime with a policy of no corporate taxes and taxation of capital distributions to the household at progressive personal income tax rates.
Texas' ERCOT ISO is used as a model for examining the costs of replacing fossil fuels by wind generation and storage, and for comparing wind power with generation based on nuclear and storage.
The unfettered development of Houston's flood-prone areas undoubtedly magnified the tremendous damage caused by Hurricane Harvey, but zoning or other land use controls are unpopular on the Texas coast and are unlikely to be adopted as a result. With this in mind, the SSPEED Center at Rice University looked to innovation and the market system to find a creative solution to protect important natural, flood-prone areas from further development.
This paper examines the cash flow and financial issues affecting Venezuela’s PDVSA, as well as the operational challenges facing the country’s oil industry.
Igor Hernández, Francisco J. MonaldiNovember 18, 2016
In this working paper, fellow John Diamond and Rice faculty scholar George Zodrow describe the Diamond-Zodrow model, which simulates the macroeconomic effects of corporate income tax reform proposals.
This working paper studies optimal taxation in a dynamic stochastic economy in which there is uncertainty about the effects of climate change. It concludes that model uncertainty has significant quantitative implications regarding optimal greenhouse gas emissions and the optimal mix of fossil fuel used.
This working paper is one of a series submitted for the Oct. 1, 2015, Baker Institute event "Currency Policy Then and Now: 30th Anniversary of the Plaza Accord."