IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/cpr/ceprdp/15153.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Transport policy for a post-Covid UK

Author

Listed:
  • Newbery, David

Abstract

Transport policy needs reform. Future Government investment and fiscal policy needs re-orienting to stimulate the economy after the Covid-19 lock-down. Prices used in project appraisal must include all external effects, committing to proper social cost-benefit analysis. In consequence, fuel duty rates need to be more than doubled as a prelude to proper road pricing. Transport investment needs to be increased even with proper road pricing and more allocated to walking and cycling, guided by benefit-cost ratios, following Eddington’s recommendations. The paper gives five reasons for raising fuel duty rates, more on diesel than petrol, and estimates the desired levels.

Suggested Citation

  • Newbery, David, 2020. "Transport policy for a post-Covid UK," CEPR Discussion Papers 15153, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    • Handle: RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:15153
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://cepr.org/publications/DP15153
    Download Restriction: CEPR Discussion Papers are free to download for our researchers, subscribers and members. If you fall into one of these categories but have trouble downloading our papers, please contact us at subscribers@cepr.org
    ---><---

    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. Newbery, D., 2005. "Why Tax Energy? Towards a More Rational Energy Policy," Cambridge Working Papers in Economics 0508, Faculty of Economics, University of Cambridge.
    2. Robin Lindsey, 2006. "Do Economists Reach A Conclusion on Road Pricing? The Intellectual History of an Idea," Econ Journal Watch, Econ Journal Watch, vol. 3(2), pages 292-379, May.
    3. Small, Kenneth A., 2005. "Unnoticed Lessons from London," University of California Transportation Center, Working Papers qt4fv237ht, University of California Transportation Center.
    4. Newbery, David M, 1990. "Pricing and Congestion: Economic Principles Relevant to Pricing Roads," Oxford Review of Economic Policy, Oxford University Press and Oxford Review of Economic Policy Limited, vol. 6(2), pages 22-38, Summer.
    5. Santos, Georgina, 2017. "Road fuel taxes in Europe: Do they internalize road transport externalities?," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 53(C), pages 120-134.
    6. Unknown, 1986. "Letters," Choices: The Magazine of Food, Farm, and Resource Issues, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 1(4), pages 1-9.
    7. Deaton, Angus & Stern, Nicholas, 1986. "Optimally uniform commodity taxes, taste differences and lump-sum grants," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 20(3), pages 263-266.
    8. David M. Newbery, 2005. "Why Tax Energy? Towards a More Rational Policy," The Energy Journal, International Association for Energy Economics, vol. 0(Number 3), pages 1-40.
    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. Mallika Chawla & Michael G. Pollitt, 2013. "Energy-efficiency and Environmental Policies & Income Supplements in the UK: Evolution and Distributional Impacts on Domestic Energy Bills," Economics of Energy & Environmental Policy, International Association for Energy Economics, vol. 0(Number 1).
    2. Pollitt, M. G., 2024. "David Michael Garrood Newbery (1943-)," Cambridge Working Papers in Economics 2442, Faculty of Economics, University of Cambridge.
    3. Parry, Ian, 2015. "Designing Fiscal Policy to Address the External Costs of Energy," International Review of Environmental and Resource Economics, now publishers, vol. 8(1), pages 1-56, May.
    4. 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.
    5. Santos, Georgina, 2017. "Road fuel taxes in Europe: Do they internalize road transport externalities?," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 53(C), pages 120-134.
    6. Alberto Gago & Xavier Labandeira & Xiral López Otero, 2014. "A Panorama on Energy Taxes and Green Tax Reforms," Hacienda Pública Española / Review of Public Economics, IEF, vol. 208(1), pages 145-190, March.
    7. De Bonis, Valeria, 1997. "Regional integration and factor income taxation," Policy Research Working Paper Series 1849, The World Bank.
    8. Kaplanoglou, Georgia & Newbery, David Michael, 2003. "Indirect Taxation in Greece: Evaluation and Possible Reform," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 10(5), pages 511-533, September.
    9. Labandeira, Xavier & Labeaga, José M. & Rodríguez, Miguel, 2009. "An integrated economic and distributional analysis of energy policies," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 37(12), pages 5776-5786, December.
    10. Asano, Seki & Barbosa, Ana Luiza N. H. & Fiuza, Eduardo P. S., 2004. "Optimal Commodity Taxes for Brazil Based on AIDS Preferences," Revista Brasileira de Economia - RBE, EPGE Brazilian School of Economics and Finance - FGV EPGE (Brazil), vol. 58(1), January.
    11. Strand, Jon, 2013. "Strategic climate policy with offsets and incomplete abatement: Carbon taxes versus cap-and-trade," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 66(2), pages 202-218.
    12. Strand, Jon, 2010. "Taxes and caps as climate policy instruments with domestic and imported fuels," Policy Research Working Paper Series 5171, The World Bank.
    13. Sijbren Cnossen, 2020. "Excise Taxation for Domestic Resource Mobilization," CESifo Working Paper Series 8442, CESifo.
    14. Batlle, C. & Pérez-Arriaga, I.J. & Zambrano-Barragán, P., 2012. "Regulatory design for RES-E support mechanisms: Learning curves, market structure, and burden-sharing," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 41(C), pages 212-220.
    15. Jonathan Leape, 2006. "The London Congestion Charge," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 20(4), pages 157-176, Fall.
    16. Alberto Petrucci, 2010. "Second-Best Optimal Taxation of Oil and Capital in a Small Open Economy," Working Papers 2010.20, Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei.
    17. Jon Strand, 2010. "Taxes versus Cap-and-Trade in Climate Policy when only some Fuel Importers Abate," CESifo Working Paper Series 3233, CESifo.
    18. Peters, Jörg & Thielmann, Sascha, 2008. "Promoting biofuels: Implications for developing countries," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 36(4), pages 1538-1544, April.
    19. Mallika Chawla & Michael G. Pollitt, 2012. "Energy-efficiency and environmental policies & income supplements in the UK: Their evolution and distributional impact in relation to domestic energy bills," Working Papers EPRG 1227, Energy Policy Research Group, Cambridge Judge Business School, University of Cambridge.
    20. Cremer, Helmuth & Gahvari, Firouz, 1995. "Uncertainty and optimal taxation: In defense of commodity taxes," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 56(2), pages 291-310, February.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Transport policy; Fuel taxes; Road pricing; Infrastructure investment;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D62 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics - - - Externalities
    • H23 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Externalities; Redistributive Effects; Environmental Taxes and Subsidies
    • R41 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - Transportation Economics - - - Transportation: Demand, Supply, and Congestion; Travel Time; Safety and Accidents; Transportation Noise
    • R48 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - Transportation Economics - - - Government Pricing and Policy

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:cpr:ceprdp:15153. 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 person in charge (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.cepr.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.