PhD Dissertation Defense, Jamal Sakaya, Information Systems and Operations Management

Congratulations to Dr Jamal Sakaya, Information Systems and Operations Management, who successfully defended his doctoral dissertation at HEC Paris on December 1, 2022. 

Specialization: Information Systems and Operations Management

Topic: Towards Effective Environmental Regulations—Operations Management Perspective

Supervisor: Andrea Masini, Associate Professor, HEC Paris 

Jury Members:

• Dimitrios ANDRITSOS Associate Professor, HEC Paris 
• Claudia COLICCHIA Associate Professor, Politecnico di Milano 
• Roland GEYER Professor, University of California at Santa Barbara 
• Andrea MASINI, Dean of Faculty & Research, Associate Professor, HEC Paris, Supervisor

Abstract :

In this thesis, I study the European Union Emissions Trading System (EU ETS) and the take-back policies used in the European Union (EU) to fight global warming and manage some waste categories, attempting to clarify some of their aspects. I focus on three aspects: (i) how firms will adapt to a reform to the EU ETS that reduces the number of allowances in circulation and places excess allowances in a reserve, (ii) how the EU ETS and the take-back policies interact, and (iii) why the EU chose to manage some of its waste through take-back policies with minimum recovery rates instead of a cap-and-trade policy. Each chapter covers one aspect. In the first chapter, I examine how firms will adapt to a reform to the EU ETS that allows the regulator to remove a percentage of surplus allowances and put them in a reserve — the market stability reserve. I study the firms’ strategies for compliance with this reform and the regulator’s problem of setting a policy parameter — the percentage of surplus allowances to withdraw— that encourages emissions abatement without sacrificing economic growth. To do that, I model a game spanning two periods, in which the regulator first sets the policy parameter and then firms produce their output, reduce emissions, and participate in the auction for allowances. In the second chapter, I study how the EU ETS and waste take-back policies interact and impact each other’s economic and environmental performance. To that end, I model a game where suppliers subject to a carbon cap-and-trade policy supply raw material to manufacturers subject to take-back legislation with a minimum recycling target. In the third chapter, I try to understand why the EU chose to manage some of its waste categories through take-back policies with minimum recovery rates instead of implementing a cap-and-trade policy like it has done to fight global warming. To that end, I consider the electronic waste context, and I use two stylized models to compare the economic and environmental performance of two policies: a percentage-based take-back legislation, which requires electronic manufacturers to recycle and remanufacture a percentage of the new products they introduce into the market, and an allowancebased policy, which allows electronic manufacturers not to recycle nor remanufacture a limited quantity of the new products they introduce into the market. This limited quantity is determined by the number of allowances manufacturers gain in an auction.

Keywords: Environmental Regulations; Carbon Cap-and-Trade Policy; Waste Take-Back Policies.