Abstract
Cap-and-trade schemes are designed to achieve target levels of regulated emissions in a socially effi-
cient manner. These schemes work by issuing regulatory credits and allowing firms to buy and sell
them according to their relative compliance costs.
Analyzing the efficacy of such schemes in concentrated industries is complicated by the strategic
interactions among firms producing heterogeneous
products. We tackle this complexity via an agentbased microeconomic model of the US market for
personal vehicles. We calculate Nash equilibria
among credits-trading strategies in a variety of scenarios and regulatory models. We find that while
cap-and-trade results improves efficiency overall,
consumers bear a disproportionate share of regulation cost, as firms use credit trading to segment the
vehicle market. Credits trading volume decreases
when firms behave more strategically, which weakens the segmentation effect