Re: Green Permits and Taxes

[Robin Hahnel]

> Note to Robin: I wonder if non-tradable permits auctioned with a floor aren't really 
>pollution taxes.

Permits and taxes are not the same. The only thing that is "the same" is
that IN THEORY -- if there are no market failures in the permit markets
-- auctioning off a particular number of permits achieves the exact same
outcome as charging a pollution tax equal to the market price of a
permit.