Risk Sharing in Coasean Contracts

Environmental Economics
Written By gps comasst

Graff Zivin, J and A Small “Risk Sharing in Coasean Contracts,” Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, 45(2003): 394-415.

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The Coase Theorem is analyzed in a setting in which pollution damages are a stochastic function of emissions and of natural environmental variability (e.g., weather). When pollution damages are stochastic, emissions create financial risks. Pollution levels allowed under Coasean contracts then in general depend on agents’ risk appetites, and on the initial configuration of property rights and bargaining power. In this case, resource allocation decisions are not separable from the legal institutions that allocate risks, nor from the financial institutions that facilitate risk transfer. In particular, improvements in environmental risk markets generally induce greater levels of pollution.

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