Environmental Abatement and Intergenerational Distribution

This paper employs an overlapping-generations model to explore the impactof public abatement on private investment and the intergenerationaldistribution of welfare. Whereas public abatement benefits the oldestgenerations in terms of non-environmental welfare, future generations gainmost in terms of environment welfare. The overall benefits tend to besmallest for generations born at the time of the unanticipated policy shock.Public debt policy, however, can be employed to ensure that welfare gainsare distributed more equally across the various generations. Such a policyimplies that natural capital crowds-out man-made capital. Copyright Kluwer Academic Publishers 2002