California’s Climate Policy and the Dairy Manufacturing Industry: How Does a Federal Milk Marketing Order Matter?

The welfare consequences of any climate program depend on preexisting market and regulatory distortions. This paper examines the impact of California's climate policy on the dairy manufacturing industry with explicit modeling of major milk pricing policies. Numerical simulations indicate that climate policy leads to a diversion of farm milk from manufactured products to fluid products. The establishment of a Federal Milk Marketing Order in California reduces the distorting effect of milk pricing policies. As a consequence, consumers of fluid products would enjoy a bigger welfare gain from climate policy under the Federal Milk Marketing Order.