IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/anr/reseco/v13y2021p245-265.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Carbon Taxes in Theory and Practice

Author

Listed:
  • Gilbert E. Metcalf

    (Department of Economics, Tufts University, Medford, Massachusetts 02155, USA)

Abstract

As of 2020, carbon taxes were in effect in 30 jurisdictions around the world. This article provides a theoretical overview of carbon taxes along with some empirical evidence on the macroeconomic impacts of existing taxes, including emission reductions. It compares and contrasts carbon taxes with other policy instruments to reduce emissions. It also highlights issues that have recently attracted the attention of researchers on which additional research would be beneficial. Those include (a) the role of border adjustments in a unilaterally imposed carbon tax, (b) hybrid carbon tax systems that increase the likelihood of hitting desired emission reduction targets, (c) the optimal price path for a carbon tax, and (d) the growing empirical literature on the economic impact of carbon taxes.

Suggested Citation

  • Gilbert E. Metcalf, 2021. "Carbon Taxes in Theory and Practice," Annual Review of Resource Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 13(1), pages 245-265, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:anr:reseco:v:13:y:2021:p:245-265
    DOI: 10.1146/annurev-resource-102519-113630
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-resource-102519-113630
    Download Restriction: Full text downloads are only available to subscribers. Visit the abstract page for more information.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1146/annurev-resource-102519-113630?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Ott, Laurent & Weber, Sylvain, 2022. "How effective is carbon taxation on residential heating demand? A household-level analysis," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 160(C).
    2. Daniel Santabárbara & Marta Suárez-Varela, 2022. "Carbon pricing and inflation volatility," Working Papers 2231, Banco de España.
    3. Weijiang Liu & Min Liu & Tingting Liu & Yangyang Li & Yizhe Hao, 2022. "Does a Recycling Carbon Tax with Technological Progress in Clean Electricity Drive the Green Economy?," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(3), pages 1-18, February.
    4. Ollier, Maxime & De Cara, Stéphane, 2024. "Give and take: An analysis of the distributional consequences of emission tax-and-rebate schemes with an application to greenhouse gas emissions from European agriculture," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 219(C).
    5. Angela Köppl & Margit Schratzenstaller, 2023. "Carbon taxation: A review of the empirical literature," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 37(4), pages 1353-1388, September.
    6. Mireille Chiroleu-Assouline, 2022. "Rendre acceptable la nécessaire taxation du carbone. Quelles pistes pour la France ?," Revue de l'OFCE, Presses de Sciences-Po, vol. 0(1), pages 15-53.
    7. Malerba, Daniele, 2023. "The role of social protection in environmental fiscal reforms," IDOS Discussion Papers 10/2023, German Institute of Development and Sustainability (IDOS).
    8. Li, Shoude & Zhang, Yingxuan, 2023. "Abatement technology innovation and pollution tax design: A dynamic analysis in monopoly," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 119(C).
    9. Martin Rabbia, 2023. "Why did Argentina and Uruguay decide to pursue a carbon tax? Fiscal reforms and explicit carbon prices," Review of Policy Research, Policy Studies Organization, vol. 40(2), pages 230-259, March.
    10. Fuan Zhang & Na Li, 2022. "The Impact of CSR on the Performance of a Dual-Channel Closed-Loop Supply Chain under Two Carbon Regulatory Policies," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(5), pages 1-22, March.
    11. You-Yi Guo & Jin-Xu Lin & Shih-Mo Lin, 2022. "The Distribution Effects of a Carbon Tax on Urban and Rural Households in China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(13), pages 1-15, June.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    climate change; greenhouse gas emissions; carbon tax; climate policy;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • H23 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Externalities; Redistributive Effects; Environmental Taxes and Subsidies
    • Q48 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Energy - - - Government Policy
    • Q54 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - Climate; Natural Disasters and their Management; Global Warming
    • Q58 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - Environmental Economics: Government Policy

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:anr:reseco:v:13:y:2021:p:245-265. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: http://www.annualreviews.org (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.annualreviews.org .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.