This article surveys the literature on the economic impact of climate change. Different methods have been used to estimate the impact of climate change on human welfare. Studies agree that there are positive and negative impacts. In the short term, positive impacts may dominate, but these are sunk benefits that will obtain regardless of abatement policy. In the longer term, there are net negative impacts. Poorer people tend to be more vulnerable to climate change. Estimated aggregate impacts are not very large, but they are uncertain and incomplete. Estimates of the marginal impacts suggest that greenhouse gas emissions should be taxed and that the emission reduction targets announced by politicians are probably too ambitious. Estimates of the willingness to pay for climate policy suggest that lay people are probably more concerned than experts about the total impact of climate change, whereas lay people and experts agree on estimates of the incremental impact of carbon dioxide emissions.
This article presents an overview of the economics literature on the effect of corporate average fuel economy (CAFE) standards on the new vehicle market. Since 1978, CAFE has imposed fuel economy standards for cars and light trucks sold in the U.S. market. This article reviews the history of the standards, followed by a discussion of the major upcoming changes in implementation and stringency. It describes strategies that firms can use to meet the standards and reviews the CAFE literature as it applies to the new vehicle market. The review concludes by highlighting areas for future research in light of the upcoming changes to CAFE.
