Air Pollution, Allocation of Property Rights, Environmental Issues and Theoretical Overlapping Generations General Equilibrium Modelling

This paper presents how the environment - considered as a production factor - and other related assumptions can be introduced step by step in a theoretical Overlapping Generations General Equilibrium Model (OLG - GE). The first part shows the behaviors of agents with pollution in the absence of an environmental policy. The second part emphasizes a Greenhouse Gas abatement policy through the allocation of Pollution Permit ownership, which allows property rights on the environment; here we assume a three-factor model: Capital - Labor - Environment. The last part of of the paper highlights one theoretical property about the allocation of pollution permits within a OLG-GE steady state with the environment. To our knowledge, it is the first time that the aforementioned property has been characterized.