Files
Abstract
The terms ‘grandfather clause’ and ‘grandfathering’ describe elements of
a policy program in which existing participants in an activity are protected from
the impact of regulations, restrictions or charges applied to new entrants. In this
paper, the role of grandfathering in the design of a carbon emissions trading
scheme in Australia is assessed. It is argued that adjustment assistance policies
such as those adopted in conjunction with previous microeconomic reform
programs are preferable to policies based on the free issue of emissions permits.