Replication Data for: Expert Views on Carbon Pricing in the Developing World

Carbon pricing has gained momentum over the past decade, with many developing countries either considering or implementing direct carbon pricing mechanisms. However, the factors that cause policymakers to prefer some policy designs over others remain uncertain. We argue that expert assessments of carbon pricing primarily center on economic efficiency and distributional concerns, which respectively affect perceptions of technical efficacy and political feasibility. Leveraging a unique conjoint experiment with carbon pricing experts in developing countries, we examine how aspects of policy design influence effectiveness and feasibility before empirically exploring how experts weigh these factors against each other. Design choices that alter the costs and benefits of carbon pricing affect perceptions of the policy's effectiveness and feasibility, often in opposing directions. Experts are split over which goal is more important overall, preferring political feasibility when distributing costs but weighing effectiveness and feasibility similarly when distributing benefits. Our findings highlight the challenge of balancing the ambition and political risk of carbon pricing, a tension that informs the policy recommendations of developing country experts.