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Article
Costs of Inefficient Regulation: Evidence from the Bakken
Economics Working Papers
  • Gabriel E. Lade, Iowa State University
  • Ivan Rudik, Iowa State University
Publication Date
12-1-2017
Number
NBER 24139
Abstract

Efficient pollution regulation equalizes marginal abatement costs across sources. Here we study a new flaring regulation in North Dakota's oil and gas industry and document its efficiency. Exploiting detailed well-level data, we find that the regulation reduced flaring 4 to 7 percentage points and accounts for up to half of the observed flaring reductions since 2015. We construct firm-level marginal flaring abatement cost curves and find that the observed flaring reductions could have been achieved at 20%lower cost by imposing a tax on flared gas equal to current public lands royalty rates instead of using firm-specific flaring requirements.

Version History

Original Release Date: December 2017

Departments
Department of Economics, Iowa State University
File Format
application/pdf
Length
49 pages
Citation Information
Gabriel E. Lade and Ivan Rudik. "Costs of Inefficient Regulation: Evidence from the Bakken" (2017)
Available at: http://works.bepress.com/gabriel-lade/15/