The social costs of second-best policies: Evidence from agricultural GHG mitigation

This paper investigates the social costs of second-best agricultural greenhouse gas (GHG) mitigation policies. Adjustments along the land use and input intensity margins are represented within a regionalized optimization model of California crop production calibrated to economic and agronomic information. Second-best policies relying on spatially aggregated GHG emission factors lead to small abatement efficiency losses, while policies targeting a single GHG lead to moderate losses. In contrast, policies targeting a single input entail large abatement efficiency losses, which nonetheless can be reduced by combining instruments.