Research on marginal abatement cost: A bibliometric analysis

Marginal abatement cost (MAC) has recently become a standard tool for analyzing climate change policies. Using the bibliometric method, this study assessed the MAC literatures both quantitatively and qualitatively, based on the Network Database Platform of Web of Science (WOS). Wherein based on the co-occurrence analysis of keywords, the research hotspots were discussed. The results show that the literature on MAC has shown a rapid growth trend at the global level. And the MAC research is a multidisciplinary field, mainly focuses on four disciplines: Economics, Environmental science, Environmental research, and Energy Fuel. The three most productive journals are Energy Policy (60), Energy Economics (38), and Journal of Environmental Economics and Management (33). The International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis, Tsinghua University, and University of California are the most productive research institutes. And the most productive author is the Dutch scholar Van Vuuren, and he has the greatest influence. Furthermore, six research hotspots in MAC field were explored: climate change policy, co-benefits, sectoral abatement costs, effects of energy prices on MAC, effects of technical change on MAC, and improvement of MAC methods, respectively. Finally, this study proposed the selecting path reference of MAC method, based on "policy-makers", "policy", and "cost".