Ford School Public Events

New drugs and vaccines could save millions of lives in the developing world. But drug and vaccine development is expensive, and many of these badly needed health technologies promise markets too small to interest the for-profit pharmaceutical industry.

Emissions trading policies initially relied on 'squatter's rights' principles granting emissions allowances to existing polluters for free. Recently, however, policy designers have largely abandoned this approach, requiring polluters to buy allowances from the public through auctions. Given the high financial stakes, this is a momentous shift. Given how skeptical experts and decision makers have been of the political viability of allowance auctions, and the opposition of powerful economic interests, it is also a remarkable political development. This presentation will document the surprising emergence of a new paradigm of public resource ownership, as well as offering some thoughts on why this paradigm suddenly gained political traction. The presentation will also explore an ongoing tension between two competing visions of public ownership. How this tension may be resolved remains a vital question for future emissions trading policies.