A voting architecture for the governance of free-driver externalities, with application to geoengineering
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Abstract Abating climate change is an enormous international public‐goods problem with a classical “free‐rider” structure. However, it is also a global “free‐driver” problem because geoengineering the stratosphere with reflective particles to block incoming solar radiation is so cheap that it could essentially be undertaken unilaterally by one state perceiving itself to be in peril. This exploratory paper develops the main features of a free‐driver externality in a simple model motivated by the asymmetric consequences of type‐I and type‐II errors. I propose a social‐choice decision architecture, embodying the solution concept of a supermajority voting rule, and derive its basic properties.
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Overly rapid deployment due to 'free-driving' or overly slow phase-out due to technological or infrastructural lock-in are entirely plausible.
“Overly rapid deployment due to 'free-driving' 5 , (Weitzman, 2015) or overly slow phase-out due to technological or infrastructural lock-in (Seto et al., 2016) are entirely plausible.”
From A Fate Worse Than Warming? Stratospheric Aerosol Injection and Global Catastrophic Risk (2021) · cites this paper as Weitzman, 2015
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- Authors
- Weitzman, M. L.
- Affiliations
- Harvard University (US)
- Corresponding author
- Weitzman, Martin L.
- Venue
- The Scandinavian Journal of Economics
- Publisher
- Wiley
- Published
- 2015-07-14
- Volume
- 117
- Issue
- 4
- Pages
- 1049-1068
- ISSN
- 0347-0520 (ISSN-L)
- 1467-9442
- OpenAlex
- W2123369793
- Cited by
- 159
- References
- 21
- Citations by year
- 2026: 8 · 2025: 5 · 2024: 12 · 2023: 9 · 2022: 8 · 2021: 7 · 2020: 8 · 2019: 30 · 2018: 43 · 2017: 8 · 2016: 10 · 2015: 8 · 2014: 2 · 2013: 1
- FWCI
- 55.38
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- nrs.harvard.edu
- Locations
- Scandinavian Journal of Economics (publishedVersion)
- RePEc: Research Papers in Economics (submittedVersion)
- Digital Access to Scholarship at Harvard (DASH) (Harvard University) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Economics, Econometrics and Finance › Economics and Econometrics › Game Theory and Voting Systems
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Global and Planetary Change › Climate Change and Geoengineering
- Social Sciences › Economics, Econometrics and Finance › Economics and Econometrics › Climate Change Policy and Economics
- Keywords
- geoengineering, solar radiation management, stratospheric aerosol injection, climate governance, free-rider problem, supermajority voting, social choice, type I and type II errors, international public goods
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