PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Murray, Brian C.
AU  - McCarl, Bruce A.
AU  - Lee, Heng-Chi
TI  - Estimating Leakage from Forest Carbon Sequestration Programs
AID  - 10.2307/3147147
DP  - 2004 Feb 01
TA  - Land Economics
PG  - 109--124
VI  - 80
IP  - 1
4099  - http://le.uwpress.org/content/80/1/109.short
4100  - http://le.uwpress.org/content/80/1/109.full
SO  - Land Econ2004 Feb 01; 80
AB  - Leakage from forest carbon sequestration—the amount of a program’s direct carbon benefits undermined by carbon releases else-where—depends critically on demanders’ ability to substitute non-reserved timber for timber targeted by the program. A nalytic, econometric, and sector-level optimization models are combined to estimate leakage from different forest carbon sequestration activities. Empirical estimates for the United States show leakage ranges from minimal (< 10%) to enormous (> 90%), depending on the activity and region. These results suggest that leakage effects should not be ignored in accounting for the net level of greenhouse gas offsets from land use and forestry mitigation activities. (JEL Q25, Q32)