TY  - JOUR
AU  - Goulder,Lawrence H.
AU  - Pizer,William A.
TI  - The Economics of Climate Change
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 11923
PY  - 2006
Y2  - January 2006
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w11923
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w11923.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
Lawrence H. Goulder
Department of Economics
Landau Economics Building 328
Stanford University
Stanford, CA  94305
Tel: 650/723-3706
Fax: 650/725-5702
E-Mail: goulder@stanford.edu

William A. Pizer
Sanford School of Public Policy
Duke University
Box 90312
Durham, NC 27708
Tel: 919/613-9286
Fax: 877/240-9880
E-Mail: billy.pizer@duke.edu
AB  - Global climate change poses a threat to the well-being of humans and other living things through impacts on ecosystem functioning, biodiversity, capital productivity, and human health. This paper briefly surveys recent research on the economics of climate change, including theoretical insights and empirical findings that offer guidance to policy makers. Section 1 frames the climate change problem and indicates the ways that economic research can address it. Section 2 describes approaches to measuring the benefits and costs associated with reducing greenhouse gas emissions. In Section 3 we discuss the implications of uncertainty for the timing and stringency of policies to address possible climate change. We then present issues related to policy design, including instrument choice (Section 4), flexibility (Section 5), and international coordination (Section 6). The final section offers general conclusions.
ER  -