IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/cwl/cwldpp/2404.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Direct and Indirect Taxes in Pollution Dynamics

Author

Listed:
  • Vladimir Smirnyagin

    (University of Virginia)

  • Aleh Tsyvinski

    (Yale University)

  • Xi Wu

    (University of California - Berkeley)

Abstract

Analyzing the universe of federal environmental regulations in the U.S., we construct a measure of regulations—direct taxes on pollution. Analyzing the universe of firms’ investor disclosures, we construct a measure of material environmental concerns—indirect taxes on pollution. These two empirical measures are new to the environmental regulations literature. Thirdly, we document an important new fact that the cross-sectional distribution of pollution changes is lumpy. We build a dynamic heterogeneous firm model with non-convex adjustment costs that fits the cross-sectional pollution evidence. The model explains half of the pollution decline in U.S. manufacturing over the last two decades due to direct and indirect taxes. We show that the dynamics of direct taxes (environmental regulations) and indirect taxes (environmental concerns), non-convex adjustment costs, and idiosyncratic productivity shocks are key determinants of pollution dynamics in U.S. manufacturing

Suggested Citation

  • Vladimir Smirnyagin & Aleh Tsyvinski & Xi Wu, 2024. "Direct and Indirect Taxes in Pollution Dynamics," Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers 2404, Cowles Foundation for Research in Economics, Yale University.
    • Handle: RePEc:cwl:cwldpp:2404
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://cowles.yale.edu/sites/default/files/2024-08/d2404.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Aubhik Khan & Julia K. Thomas, 2008. "Idiosyncratic Shocks and the Role of Nonconvexities in Plant and Aggregate Investment Dynamics," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 76(2), pages 395-436, March.
    2. Joseph S. Shapiro & Reed Walker, 2018. "Why Is Pollution from US Manufacturing Declining? The Roles of Environmental Regulation, Productivity, and Trade," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 108(12), pages 3814-3854, December.
    3. Stephen P. Ryan, 2012. "The Costs of Environmental Regulation in a Concentrated Industry," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 80(3), pages 1019-1061, May.
    4. Smirnyagin, Vladimir, 2023. "Returns to scale, firm entry, and the business cycle," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 134(C), pages 118-134.
    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. Jonathan T. Hawkins-Pierot & Katherine R. H. Wagner, 2022. "Technology Lock-In and Optimal Carbon Pricing," CESifo Working Paper Series 9762, CESifo.
    2. Jonathan T. Hawkins-Pierot & Katherine R. H. Wagner, 2023. "Technology Lock-In and Costs of Delayed Climate Policy," Working Papers 23-33, Center for Economic Studies, U.S. Census Bureau.
    3. Feng Liu & Kangning Xu & Meina Zheng, 2018. "The Effect of Environmental Regulation on Employment in China: Empirical Research Based on Individual-Level Data," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(7), pages 1-23, July.
    4. Du, Weijian & Li, Mengjie, 2023. "Opening the black box of environmental governance: Environmental target constraints and industrial firm pollution reduction," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 283(C).
    5. Gong, Binlei & Li, Haoyang & Lin, Liguo & Ling, Hanxiang, 2024. "Two Birds, One Stone: Responses of Agriculture to Water Pollution Regulation," 2024 Annual Meeting, July 28-30, New Orleans, LA 343700, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    6. Andersen, Dana C., 2018. "Accounting for loss of variety and factor reallocations in the welfare cost of regulations," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 88(C), pages 69-94.
    7. Rebecca J. Davis & J. Scott Holladay & Charles Sims, 2022. "Coal-Fired Power Plant Retirements in the United States," Environmental and Energy Policy and the Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 3(1), pages 4-36.
    8. J. Scott Holladay & Lawrence D. LaPlue, 2021. "Decomposing changes in establishment‐level emissions with entry and exit," Canadian Journal of Economics/Revue canadienne d'économique, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 54(3), pages 1046-1071, November.
    9. Longzhou Wang, 2023. "The Impact of Environmental Regulation on Firms’ Product Quality: Evidence from Chinese Exporters," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 86(3), pages 645-672, November.
    10. Wang, Huanhuan & Xiong, Jiaxin, 2022. "Governance on water pollution: Evidence from a new river regulatory system of China," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 113(C).
    11. Li, Shuo & Wang, Min, 2022. "Environmental Regulation and Firms’ Extensive Margin Decisions," EfD Discussion Paper 22-15, Environment for Development, University of Gothenburg.
    12. Mian Yang & Yining Yuan & Fuxia Yang & Dalia Patino-Echeverri, 2021. "Effects of environmental regulation on firm entry and exit and China’s industrial productivity: a new perspective on the Porter Hypothesis," Environmental Economics and Policy Studies, Springer;Society for Environmental Economics and Policy Studies - SEEPS, vol. 23(4), pages 915-944, October.
    13. Andersen, Dana C., 2016. "Accounting for Firm Exit and Loss of Variety in the Welfare Cost of Regulations," Working Papers 2016-9, University of Alberta, Department of Economics.
    14. Aldy, Joseph E. & Auffhammer, Maximillian & Cropper, Maureen L. & Fraas, Arthur G. & Morgenstern, Richard D., 2020. "Looking Back at Fifty Years of the Clean Air Act," RFF Working Paper Series 20-01, Resources for the Future.
    15. Jian Song & Yijing Wang & Jing Wang, 2022. "The Impact of SO 2 Emissions Trading Scheme on Firm’s Environmental Performance: A Channel from Robot Application," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(24), pages 1-31, December.
    16. Michael Gmeiner, 2019. "Seasonal Demand and Net Entry," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 39(2), pages 1135-1143.
    17. Taisuke Otsu & Martin Pesendorfer & Yuya Sasaki & Yuya Takahashi, 2022. "Estimation Of (Static Or Dynamic) Games Under Equilibrium Multiplicity," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 63(3), pages 1165-1188, August.
    18. Suguru Otani, 2024. "Industry Dynamics with Cartels: The Case of the Container Shipping Industry," Discussion Paper Series DP2024-28, Research Institute for Economics & Business Administration, Kobe University.
    19. Joel M. David & Venky Venkateswaran, 2019. "The Sources of Capital Misallocation," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 109(7), pages 2531-2567, July.
    20. Abito, Jose Miguel & Chen, Cuicui, 2023. "A partial identification framework for dynamic games," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 87(C).

    More about this item

    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:cwl:cwldpp:2404. 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: Brittany Ladd (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/cowleus.html .

    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.