IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/envpol/v7y2005i2p53-74.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Abatement costs of alternative tax systems to regulate agricultural nitrogen loss

Author

Listed:
  • Jan Christensen
  • Lars Hansen

Abstract

Nitrogen emissions from agriculture are considered an important environmental problem in Denmark, motivating consideration of different tax schemes as regulatory instruments. In this article, input/output behavior of Danish pig farms is estimated with farm-level panel data using the dual profit function approach, and emission functions for nitrogen loss are derived. With the estimated model, we are able to compare cost effectiveness of a comprehensive Pigouvian tax on nitrogen loss with simpler tax schemes that focus on nitrogen use. We find that both a fertilizer tax and a feed tax generate substantially higher abatement costs than Pigouvian incentives. A tax on nitrogen in all inputs will, on the other hand, only generate a marginal increase in abatement costs. These results are of interest because a tax on all nitrogen inputs is easier to implement than a comprehensive nitrogen loss tax. Our result implies that even a limited administrative cost advantage may make the input tax preferable to implementing Pigouvian incentives through a nitrogen loss tax. Copyright Springer Japan 2005

Suggested Citation

  • Jan Christensen & Lars Hansen, 2005. "Abatement costs of alternative tax systems to regulate agricultural nitrogen loss," Environmental Economics and Policy Studies, Springer;Society for Environmental Economics and Policy Studies - SEEPS, vol. 7(2), pages 53-74, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:envpol:v:7:y:2005:i:2:p:53-74
    DOI: 10.1007/BF03353945
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1007/BF03353945
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/BF03353945?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 look for a different version below or search for a different version of it.

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Hansen, Lars Gårn, 1999. "A Deposit-Refund System Applied to Nitrogen Emissions from Agriculture," MPRA Paper 26664, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    2. Hallam, David & Zanoli, Raffaele, 1993. "Error Correction Models and Agricultural Supply Response," European Review of Agricultural Economics, Oxford University Press and the European Agricultural and Applied Economics Publications Foundation, vol. 20(2), pages 151-166.
    3. Peter Fontein & Geert Thijssen & Jan Magnus & Jan Dijk, 1994. "On levies to reduce the nitrogen surplus: The case of Dutch pig farms," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 4(5), pages 455-478, October.
    4. Wen-yuan Huang & Michael LeBlanc, 1994. "Market-Based Incentives for Addressing Non-Point Water Quality Problems: A Residual Nitrogen Tax Approach," Review of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 16(3), pages 427-440.
    5. Chambers,Robert G., 1988. "Applied Production Analysis," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521314275.
    6. Kuiper, W Erno & Meulenberg, Matthew T G, 1997. "Cointegration and Prediction Analysis of Market Supply in the Dutch Pig-Farming Industry," European Review of Agricultural Economics, Oxford University Press and the European Agricultural and Applied Economics Publications Foundation, vol. 24(2), pages 285-312.
    7. Isabelle Piot-Lepetit & Dominique Vermersch, 1998. "Pricing organic nitrogen under the weak disposability assumption : an application to the French pig sector," Post-Print hal-02299654, HAL.
    8. Isabelle Piot‐Lepetit & Dominique Vermersch, 1998. "Pricing Organic Nitrogen Under The Weak Disposability Assumption: An Application to the French Pig Sector," Journal of Agricultural Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 49(1), pages 85-99, March.
    9. Lars Hansen, 1999. "A deposit-refund system applied to non-point nitrogen emissions from agriculture," Environmental Economics and Policy Studies, Springer;Society for Environmental Economics and Policy Studies - SEEPS, vol. 2(4), pages 231-247, December.
    10. Baumol,William J. & Oates,Wallace E., 1988. "The Theory of Environmental Policy," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521311120.
    11. repec:bla:econom:v:43:y:1976:i:169:p:1-16 is not listed on IDEAS
    12. Baumol,William J. & Oates,Wallace E., 1988. "The Theory of Environmental Policy," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521322249.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

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


    Cited by:

    1. Innocent Bakam & Robin Matthews, 2009. "Emission trading in agriculture: a study of design options using an agent-based approach," Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies for Global Change, Springer, vol. 14(8), pages 755-776, December.

    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. Line Hansen & Lars Hansen, 2014. "Can Non-point Phosphorus Emissions from Agriculture be Regulated Efficiently Using Input-Output Taxes?," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 58(1), pages 109-125, May.
    2. Magambo, Isaiah & Dikgang, Johane & Gelo, Dambala & Tregenna, Fiona, 2021. "Environmental and Technical Efficiency in Large Gold Mines in Developing Countries," MPRA Paper 108068, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    3. Silvia Teizzi, 1999. "External Effects of Agricultural Production in Italy and Environmental Accounting," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 13(4), pages 459-472, June.
    4. Halkos, George & Tzeremes, Nickolaos, 2011. "A conditional full frontier modelling for analyzing environmental efficiency and economic growth," MPRA Paper 32839, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    5. Forsund, Finn R., 2009. "Good Modelling of Bad Outputs: Pollution and Multiple-Output Production," International Review of Environmental and Resource Economics, now publishers, vol. 3(1), pages 1-38, August.
    6. Felthoven, Ronald G., 2000. "Measuring Fishing Capacity: An Application To In North Pacific Groundfish Fisheries," 2000 Annual meeting, July 30-August 2, Tampa, FL 21815, American Agricultural Economics Association (New Name 2008: Agricultural and Applied Economics Association).
    7. Oskam, A.J., 1992. "Measuring External Effects of Agricultural Production: An Application for the Netherlands," 1992 Occasional Paper Series No. 6 197866, International Association of Agricultural Economists.
    8. Frans P. Vries & Nick Hanley, 2016. "Incentive-Based Policy Design for Pollution Control and Biodiversity Conservation: A Review," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 63(4), pages 687-702, April.
    9. Yu-Bong Lai, 2004. "Trade liberalization, consumption externalities and the environment," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 17(5), pages 1-9.
    10. Jongeneel, Roelof A. & Ge, Lan, 2005. "Explaining Growth in Dutch Agriculture: Prices, Public R&D, and Technological Change," 2005 International Congress, August 23-27, 2005, Copenhagen, Denmark 24573, European Association of Agricultural Economists.
    11. Giancarlo Giudici & Massimiliano Guerini & Cristina Rossi-Lamastra, 2019. "The creation of cleantech startups at the local level: the role of knowledge availability and environmental awareness," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 52(4), pages 815-830, April.
    12. Grüll, Georg & Taschini, Luca, 2011. "Cap-and-trade properties under different hybrid scheme designs," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 61(1), pages 107-118, January.
    13. Na Li Dawson & Kathleen Segerson, 2008. "Voluntary Agreements with Industries: Participation Incentives with Industry-Wide Targets," Land Economics, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 84(1), pages 97-114.
    14. Sam Fankhauser & Cameron Hepburn, 2009. "Carbon markets in space and time," GRI Working Papers 3, Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment.
    15. Ehigiamusoe, Kizito Uyi & Lean, Hooi Hooi & Smyth, Russell, 2020. "The moderating role of energy consumption in the carbon emissions-income nexus in middle-income countries," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 261(C).
    16. Thomas Akpan Harry & Ekemini John Peter & Nsidibe Akpan Udoduk, 2022. "Environmental Impact Assessment Of Oil Producing Communities In Part Of The Niger Delta. A Case Study Of Ibeno, Ikot Abasi, Onna And Esit-Eket Local Government Area In Akwa Ibom State, Nigeria," Environmental Contaminants Reviews (ECR), Zibeline International Publishing, vol. 5(2), pages 49-56, April.
    17. Stavins, Robert, 2001. "Lessons From the American Experiment With Market-Based Environmental Policies," RFF Working Paper Series dp-01-53, Resources for the Future.
    18. Wu, JunJie & Zilberman, David & Babcock, Bruce A., 2001. "Environmental and Distributional Impacts of Conservation Targeting Strategies," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 41(3), pages 333-350, May.
    19. Boisvert, Richard N. & Peterson, Jeffrey M., 1996. "Conditions for Requiring Separate Green Payments Policies Under Asymmetric Information," Working Papers 127934, Cornell University, Department of Applied Economics and Management.
    20. Janusch, Nicholas, 2016. "A note on the distortionary effects of revenue-neutral tolls in a bottleneck congestion game," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 92(C), pages 95-103.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Non-point source emission; incentive regulation;

    JEL classification:

    • Q1 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Agriculture
    • Q5 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics
    • H23 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Externalities; Redistributive Effects; Environmental Taxes and Subsidies

    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:spr:envpol:v:7:y:2005:i:2:p:53-74. 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: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    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.