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Starting from the US Sky Trust claim that the "the sky belongs to us equally", this paper distinguishes two sources through which overlapping generations may consent to the use of the environment whom they are the owners: the common consent of all generations reached behind the Rawlsian veil of ignorance and the specific consents of generations born at different time periods. It proposes two institutions: a fund mandated to implement the common consent by auctioning permits to firms and a voting procedure to implement the specific consents by choosing each generation's preferred level of environmental maintenance. The analysis shows how the specific consent may be, each period, operative or inoperative and that there may be at most two switches between these two regimes on the transition path. Starting from the business as usual steady state, the introduction of these institutions always immediately increases the environmental quality, but the magnitude of this gain may be temporary and decrease if capital accumulation is strongly evicted by the policy. On the opposite, we stress a case in which the introduction of the policy has beneficial effects both on wealth and quality.

We assume a population of infinitely-lived households of the economy split into two groups : one with a high discount factor (the patient) and one with a low one (the impatient). The environmental quality is deteriorated by firm's polluting emissions. The governmental policy consists in proposing households to vote for a tax aimed at environmental maintenance. We study the voting equilibrium at steady states. The resulting equilibrium maintenance is the one of the median voter. We show that (i) an increase in total factor productivity may produce effects described by the Environmental Kuznets Curve, (ii) an increase in the patience of impatient households may foster environmental quality if the median voter is impatient and maintenance positive, (iii) a decrease in inequality among the patient households leads to an increase in environmental quality if the median voter is patient and maintenance is positive. We also show that, if the median income is lower than the mean, our model predict lower level of environmental quality than the representative agent model, and that increasing public debt decreases the level of environmental quality.

We assume a population of infinitely-lived households of the economy split into two groups : one with a high discount factor (the patient) and one with a low one (the impatient). The environmental quality is deteriorated by firm's polluting emissions. The governmental policy consists in proposing households to vote for a tax aimed at environmental maintenance. We study the voting equilibrium at steady states. The resulting equilibrium maintenance is the one of the median voter. We show that (i) an increase in total factor productivity may produce effects described by the Environmental Kuznets Curve, (ii) an increase in the patience of impatient households may foster environmental quality if the median voter is impatient and maintenance positive, (iii) a decrease in inequality among the patient households leads to an increase in environmental quality if the median voter is patient and maintenance is positive. We also show that, if the median income is lower than the mean, our model predict lower level of environmental quality than the representative agent model, and that increasing public debt decreases the level of environmental quality.

We develop an overlapping generations growth model in which the individuals care about the environment. Many environmental policies suffer from institutional failures. We focus on the failure resulting from the delegation by the government of the exercise of the environmental policy to an administrative department. Though motivated by the department's expertise, the delegation principle may give rise to a conflict with social welfare maximization. This paper proposes an original policy mechanism of transfers of pollution rights capable of circumventing these failures and decentralizing optimal growth at competitive equilibrium.

We develop an overlapping generations growth model in which the individuals care about the environment. Many environmental policies suffer from institutional failures. We focus on the failure resulting from the delegation by the government of the exercise of the environmental policy to an administrative department. Though motivated by the department's expertise, the delegation principle may give rise to a conflict with social welfare maximization. This paper proposes an original policy mechanism of transfers of pollution rights capable of circumventing these failures and decentralizing optimal growth at competitive equilibrium.