by David De La Croix and Axel Gosseries - For a given
technology, two ways are available to achieve low polluting
emissions: reducing production per capita or reducing population
size. This paper insists on the tension between the former and
the latter. Controlling pollution either through Pigovian taxes
or through tradable quotas schemes encourages agents to shift
away from production to tax free activities such as procreation
and leisure. This natalist bias will deteriorate the environment
further, entailing the need to impose ever more stringent
pollution rights per person. However, this will in turn
gradually impoverish the successive generations: population will
tend to increase further and production per capita to decrease
as the generations pass. One possible solution consists in
capping population too. De La Croix, D. and A. Gosseries (2011).
"The Natalist Bias of Pollution Control." CORE Discussion Paper
No. 2011-27, Jun 2011.