IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/wfo/wpaper/y2018i554.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Carbon Taxes from an Economic Perspective

Author

Listed:
  • Claudia Kettner-Marx
  • Daniela Kletzan-Slamanig

    (WIFO)

Abstract

Economic literature generally favours market-based instruments for regulating environmental externalities since they ensure compliance at the least cost to society. Emission taxes have been increasingly introduced internationally, with the focus shifting to CO2 after the adoption of the Kyoto Protocol in 1997. In this paper, the theoretical economic literature on energy and emission taxes is reviewed. The focus is on theoretical recommendations regarding the optimal design of environmental and especially carbon taxes, their performance relative to other instruments, the concept of a double dividend as well as potential competitiveness and distribution effects. Carbon taxation can play a key role in climate policy and for achieving long-term emission reductions. This overview of economic considerations may help in creating a sustainable, effective and efficient regulatory system for reducing emissions.

Suggested Citation

  • Claudia Kettner-Marx & Daniela Kletzan-Slamanig, 2018. "Carbon Taxes from an Economic Perspective," WIFO Working Papers 554, WIFO.
    • Handle: RePEc:wfo:wpaper:y:2018:i:554
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.wifo.ac.at/wwa/pubid/60971
    File Function: abstract
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Cornwell, Antonia & Creedy, John, 1997. "Measuring the Welfare Effects of Tax Changes Using the LES: An Application to a Carbon Tax," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 22(4), pages 589-613.
    2. R. H. Coase, 2013. "The Problem of Social Cost," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 56(4), pages 837-877.
    3. Tol, Richard S.J., 2013. "Targets for global climate policy: An overview," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 37(5), pages 911-928.
    4. Lawrence Goulder, 1995. "Environmental taxation and the double dividend: A reader's guide," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 2(2), pages 157-183, August.
    5. Florens Flues & Alastair Thomas, 2015. "The distributional effects of energy taxes," OECD Taxation Working Papers 23, OECD Publishing.
    6. Robert S. Pindyck, 2013. "The Climate Policy Dilemma," Review of Environmental Economics and Policy, Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 7(2), pages 219-237, July.
    7. Martin L. Weitzman, 1974. "Prices vs. Quantities," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 41(4), pages 477-491.
    8. A. Bovenberg, 1999. "Green Tax Reforms and the Double Dividend: an Updated Reader's Guide," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 6(3), pages 421-443, August.
    9. Roberton C. Williams III, 2016. "Environmental Taxation," NBER Working Papers 22303, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    10. William J. Baumol & Wallace E. Oates, 1971. "The Use of Standards and Prices for Protection of the Environment," Palgrave Macmillan Books, in: Peter Bohm & Allen V. Kneese (ed.), The Economics of Environment, pages 53-65, Palgrave Macmillan.
    11. Michael Kohlhaas, 2003. "Energy Taxation and Competitiveness: Special Provisions for Business in Germany's Environmental Tax Reform," Discussion Papers of DIW Berlin 349, DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research.
    12. Xavier Labandeira & José M. Labeaga, 1999. "Combining input-output analysis and micro-simulation to assess the effects of carbon taxation on Spanish households," Fiscal Studies, Institute for Fiscal Studies, vol. 20(3), pages 305-320, September.
    13. Pearce, David W, 1991. "The Role of Carbon Taxes in Adjusting to Global Warming," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 101(407), pages 938-948, July.
    14. Donald B. Marron & Eric J. Toder, 2014. "Tax Policy Issues in Designing a Carbon Tax," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 104(5), pages 563-568, May.
    15. Richter, Wolfram F. & Schneider, Kerstin, 2003. "Energy taxation: Reasons for discriminating in favor of the production sector," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 47(3), pages 461-476, June.
    16. Elizabeth Symons & John Proops & Philip Gay, 1994. "Carbon taxes, consumer demand and carbon dioxide emissions: a simulation analysis for the UK," Fiscal Studies, Institute for Fiscal Studies, vol. 15(2), pages 19-43, May.
    17. Claudia Kettner-Marx & Daniela Kletzan-Slamanig, 2018. "Energy and Carbon Taxes in the EU. Empirical Evidence with Focus on the Transport Sector," WIFO Working Papers 555, WIFO.
    18. Katia Caldari & Fabio Masini, 2011. "Pigouvian versus Marshallian tax: market failure, public intervention and the problem of externalities," The European Journal of the History of Economic Thought, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 18(5), pages 715-732, December.
    19. Tiezzi, Silvia, 2005. "The welfare effects and the distributive impact of carbon taxation on Italian households," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 33(12), pages 1597-1612, August.
    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. Claudia Kettner-Marx & Daniela Kletzan-Slamanig & Mathias Kirchner & Mark Sommer & Kurt Kratena & Stefan E. Weishaar & Irene Burgers, 2018. "CATs – Carbon Taxes in Austria. Implementation Issues and Impacts," WIFO Studies, WIFO, number 61185.

    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. Nils Ohlendorf & Michael Jakob & Jan Christoph Minx & Carsten Schröder & Jan Christoph Steckel, 2021. "Distributional Impacts of Carbon Pricing: A Meta-Analysis," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 78(1), pages 1-42, January.
    2. Filippo Maria D’Arcangelo & Ilai Levin & Alessia Pagani & Mauro Pisu & Åsa Johansson, 2022. "A framework to decarbonise the economy," OECD Economic Policy Papers 31, OECD Publishing.
    3. Saelim, Supawan, 2019. "Carbon tax incidence on household consumption: Heterogeneity across socio-economic factors in Thailand," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 62(C), pages 159-174.
    4. Mònica Serrano, 2007. "The Production and Consumption Accounting Principles as a Guideline for Designing Environmental Tax Policy," Working Papers 2007.8, Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei.
    5. Heindl, Peter & Löschel, Andreas, 2015. "Social implications of green growth policies from the perspective of energy sector reform and its impact on households," ZEW Discussion Papers 15-012, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research.
    6. Nils Ohlendorf & Michael Jakob & Jan Christoph Minx & Carsten Schröder & Jan Christoph Steckel, 2018. "Distributional Impacts of Climate Mitigation Policies - a Meta-Analysis," Discussion Papers of DIW Berlin 1776, DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research.
    7. 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.
    8. Tol, Richard S.J., 2017. "The structure of the climate debate," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 104(C), pages 431-438.
    9. Immervoll, Herwig & Linden, Jules & O'Donoghue, Cathal & Sologon, Denisa Maria, 2023. "Who Pays for Higher Carbon Prices? Illustration for Lithuania and a Research Agenda," IZA Discussion Papers 15868, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    10. Zylicz, Tomasz, 2010. "Goals and Principles of Environmental Policy," International Review of Environmental and Resource Economics, now publishers, vol. 3(4), pages 299-334, May.
    11. Wang, Qian & Hubacek, Klaus & Feng, Kuishuang & Wei, Yi-Ming & Liang, Qiao-Mei, 2016. "Distributional effects of carbon taxation," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 184(C), pages 1123-1131.
    12. Jiang, Zhujun & Shao, Shuai, 2014. "Distributional effects of a carbon tax on Chinese households: A case of Shanghai," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 73(C), pages 269-277.
    13. Creedy, John & Sleeman, Catherine, 2006. "Carbon taxation, prices and welfare in New Zealand," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 57(3), pages 333-345, May.
    14. Allan, Grant & Lecca, Patrizio & McGregor, Peter & Swales, Kim, 2014. "The economic and environmental impact of a carbon tax for Scotland: A computable general equilibrium analysis," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 100(C), pages 40-50.
    15. Moz-Christofoletti, Maria Alice & Pereda, Paula Carvalho, 2021. "Winners and losers: the distributional impacts of a carbon tax in Brazil," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 183(C).
    16. Patrizio Lecca & Grant Allan & Peter McGregor & Kim Swales, 2013. "The Impact of the Introduction of a Carbon Tax for Scotland," ERSA conference papers ersa13p501, European Regional Science Association.
    17. Chung-Fu Lai, 2016. "Examining the Double Dividend Effect of Energy Tax with the Overlapping Generations Model," International Journal of Energy Economics and Policy, Econjournals, vol. 6(1), pages 53-57.
    18. Don Fullerton & Gilbert E. Metcalf, 2002. "Environmental Controls, Scarcity Rents, and Pre-existing Distortions," Chapters, in: Lawrence H. Goulder (ed.), Environmental Policy Making in Economies with Prior Tax Distortions, chapter 26, pages 504-522, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    19. Agnar Sandmo, 2003. "Environmental Taxation and Revenue for Development," WIDER Working Paper Series DP2003-86, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    carbon pricing; climate policy; environmental tax reform; instrument choice; market-based instruments;
    All these keywords.

    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:wfo:wpaper:y:2018:i:554. 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: Florian Mayr (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/wifooat.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.