Chicago’s Best Ideas with David Weisbach: Torts, Taxes, and Trading

Cap and trade systems are a prominent tool for controlling pollution, most importantly the CO2 pollution that causes climate change. Why would a nation or region choose to use a cap and trade system instead of other tools? And if cap and trade systems are appropriate for addressing climate change, where else might they be used? This talk examined these questions, looking the similarities and differences between trading systems, taxes, and torts for controlling harm-causing behavior. It then turned to how trading can be used as a regulatory tool in a wide variety of contexts, as well as examining the many problems with using trading systems.

This Chicago’s Best Idea was presented on March 21, 2023.