

Jim Perkaus, Kevin Baumert
The devastating impacts of the Asian financial crisis of 1997-98 serve as only the most recent
reminder that all liberalized financial markets critically depend on regulatory frameworks that
incorporate sound risk-management principles. An international market for greenhouse gas emissions
rights will be no exception. Risky Business identifies three risk-management principles as particularly
pertinent to this emerging market: establishing transparency and disclosure rules; properly
sequencing regulatory policies (so safeguards are in place before large-scale international
capital flows begin); and avoiding perverse incentives that result in excessive risk taking.
The report also offers recommendations to facilitate their implementation, such as imposing
a pre-trading eligibility screening on all countries and establishing a liability rule that properly
aligns risks and rewards possibly an “escrow reserve” option, which the paper proposes.
Full Text PDF
July 2001 / 24 pages
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