IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/ntj/journl/v52y1999i1p53-65.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Distributional Aspects of an Environmental Tax Shift: The Case of Motor Vehicle Emissions Taxes

Author

Listed:
  • Walls, Margaret
  • Hanson, Jean

Abstract

Policymakers are beginning to appreciate the efficiency properties of pollution taxes, but concerns over equity remain. In this paper, we assess the distributional aspects of three types of emissions fees for vehicles--a fee based on total annual emissions; a fee based on emissions rates, in grams per mile; and a fee based on annual vehicle mileage--and we compare the impacts of fees to existing vehicle registration fees. We find that all three of the emissions-related fees look quite a bit more regressive, on the basis of annual household income, than do existing registration fees. However, when we construct a lifetime income variable for our households, we find that the differential impacts of the three emissions-related fees over existing fees are quite small.

Suggested Citation

  • Walls, Margaret & Hanson, Jean, 1999. "Distributional Aspects of an Environmental Tax Shift: The Case of Motor Vehicle Emissions Taxes," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association;National Tax Journal, vol. 52(1), pages 53-65, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:ntj:journl:v:52:y:1999:i:1:p:53-65
    DOI: 10.1086/NTJ41789375
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1086/NTJ41789375
    Download Restriction: Access is restricted to subscribers and members of the National Tax Association.
    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1086/NTJ41789375
    Download Restriction: Access is restricted to subscribers and members of the National Tax Association.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1086/NTJ41789375?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.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Barthold, Thomas A., 1993. "How Should We Measure Distribution?," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association, vol. 46(3), pages 291-99, September.
    2. Poterba, James M, 1989. "Lifetime Incidence and the Distributional Burden of Excise Taxes," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 79(2), pages 325-330, May.
    3. Bovenberg, A.L. & Goulder, L.H., 1996. "Optimal environmental taxation in the presence of other taxes : General equilibrium analyses," Other publications TiSEM 5d4b7517-c5c8-4ef6-ab76-3, Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management.
    4. Dunning, Professor A., 1993. "Rationing America's medical care: The Oregon plan and beyond : By M. Strosberg, J. Wiener, R. Baker and A. Fein (Eds.) Washington, D.C., The Brookings institution 238 pp., 1992, ISBN 0-8157-8197-0, $1," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 24(2), pages 195-194, May.
    5. Bovenberg, A Lans & Goulder, Lawrence H, 1996. "Optimal Environmental Taxation in the Presence of Other Taxes: General-Equilibrium Analyses," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 86(4), pages 985-1000, September.
    6. Barthold, Thomas A., 1993. "How Should We Measure Distribution?," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association;National Tax Journal, vol. 46(3), pages 291-299, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Walls, Margaret & Hanson, Jean, 1999. "Distributional Aspects of an Environmental Tax Shift: The Case of Motor Vehicle Emissions Taxes," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association, vol. 52(n. 1), pages 53-65, March.
    2. Burtraw, Dallas & Sweeney, Richard & Walls, Margaret, 2008. "The Incidence of U.S. Climate Policy: Where You Stand Depends on Where You Sit," RFF Working Paper Series dp-08-28, Resources for the Future.
    3. Chernick, Howard & Reschovsky, Andrew, 1997. "Who Pays the Gasoline Tax?," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association;National Tax Journal, vol. 50(2), pages 233-259, June.
    4. Chernick, Howard & Reschovsky, Andrew, 1997. "Who Pays the Gasoline Tax?," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association, vol. 50(2), pages 233-59, June.
    5. Dillon Alleyne, 2007. "The Evolution of Jamaica’s Tax Burden," Public Finance Review, , vol. 35(1), pages 150-171, January.
    6. Fehr, Hans, 1999. "Welfare Effects of Dynamic Tax Reforms," Beiträge zur Finanzwissenschaft, Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen, edition 1, volume 5, number urn:isbn:9783161470165, September.
    7. Santos, Georgina & Behrendt, Hannah & Maconi, Laura & Shirvani, Tara & Teytelboym, Alexander, 2010. "Part I: Externalities and economic policies in road transport," Research in Transportation Economics, Elsevier, vol. 28(1), pages 2-45.
    8. Bruno Lanz & Sebastian Rausch, 2013. "Cap-and-Trade Climate Policy, Free Allowances, and Price-Regulated Firms," CER-ETH Economics working paper series 13/178, CER-ETH - Center of Economic Research (CER-ETH) at ETH Zurich.
    9. Daniel R. Feenberg & Andrew W. Mitrusi & James M. Poterba, 1997. "Distributional Effects of Adopting a National Retail Sales Tax," NBER Chapters, in: Tax Policy and the Economy, Volume 11, pages 49-90, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    10. Missbach, Leonard & Steckel, Jan Christoph & Vogt-Schilb, Adrien, 2024. "Cash transfers in the context of carbon pricing reforms in Latin America and the Caribbean," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 173(C).
    11. Rodrigo Cubero & Ivanna Vladkova Hollar, 2010. "Equity and Fiscal Policy: The Income Distribution Effects of Taxation and Social Spending in Central America," IMF Working Papers 2010/112, International Monetary Fund.
    12. Gilbert E. Metcalf, 1998. "A Distributional Analysis of an Environmental Tax Shift," Discussion Papers Series, Department of Economics, Tufts University 9801, Department of Economics, Tufts University.
    13. Don Fullerton & Diane Lim Rogers, 1994. "Distributional Effects on a Lifetime Basis," NBER Working Papers 4862, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    14. Jan Abrell & Sebastian Rausch & Giacomo A. Schwarz, 2016. "Social Equity Concerns and Differentiated Environmental Taxes," CER-ETH Economics working paper series 16/262, CER-ETH - Center of Economic Research (CER-ETH) at ETH Zurich.
    15. Abrell, Jan & Rausch, Sebastian & Schwarz, Giacomo A., 2018. "How robust is the uniform emissions pricing rule to social equity concerns?," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 92(C), pages 783-814.
    16. Bruno Lanz & Sebastian Rausch, 2016. "Emissions Trading in the Presence of Price-Regulated Polluting Firms: How Costly Are Free Allowances?," The Energy Journal, , vol. 37(1), pages 195-232, January.
    17. Schünemann, Johannes & Trimborn, Timo, 2023. "Boosting taxes for boasting about houses? Status concerns in the housing market," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 205(C), pages 120-143.
    18. Frédéric Gonand, 2016. "The Carbon Tax, Ageing and Pension Deficits," Post-Print hal-01251698, HAL.
    19. C. A. de Kam & J. de Haan & C. Giles & A. Manresa & E. Berenguer & J. Merz & K. Venkatarama, 1996. "The distribution of effective tax burdens in four EU countries," FFB-Discussionpaper 21, Research Institute on Professions (Forschungsinstitut Freie Berufe (FFB)), LEUPHANA University Lüneburg.
    20. repec:spo:wpmain:info:hdl:2441/eu4vqp9ompqllr09hi4ipb1c8 is not listed on IDEAS
    21. van Kooten, G. Cornelis, 2004. "Economics of Forest and Agricultural Carbon Sinks," Working Papers 18160, University of Victoria, Resource Economics and Policy.

    More about this item

    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:ntj:journl:v:52:y:1999:i:1:p:53-65. 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.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with 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: The University of Chicago Press (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.ntanet.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.