Abstract

This paper revisits Coase’s ideas on property rights in a scenario where the law allows the establishment of mandatory limits - caps- to specific harmful effects of economic activity such as air pollution or traffic congestion. We propose a general equilibrium model with a cap-and-trade mechanism where agents suffering the harm share a portfolio of Coasian rights designed according to the caps. Equilibrium allocations must comply with the cap, reducing polluting emissions or switching from private to public transport. In addition, the monetary transfers that result from the sale of rights to polluters yield compensation to the harmed population, increasing the non-polluters income. © 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.