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Environmental tax reform with irreversible investment, technological progress and unemployment

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  • Scholz, Christian M.

Abstract

This paper analyzes if unemployment can be reduced through labor tax cuts that are financed in a revenue neutral way through energy tax increases. In contrast to other papers on this topic we consider investment behavior of firms in energy saving technologies, irreversibilities, embodied technological progress and involuntary unemployment. Arguments are presented that reducing the sunk costs instead of the labor tax seems to be the better instrument to reduce energy input and unemployment since this puts more pressure on firms that are using old technologies to adopt a more efficient energy saving technology.

Suggested Citation

  • Scholz, Christian M., 1997. "Environmental tax reform with irreversible investment, technological progress and unemployment," Kiel Working Papers 798, Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW Kiel).
    • Handle: RePEc:zbw:ifwkwp:798
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. A. Lans Bovenberg & Frederick van der Ploeg, 2002. "Environmental Policy, Public Finance and the Labour Market in a Second-Best World," Chapters, in: Lawrence H. Goulder (ed.), Environmental Policy Making in Economies with Prior Tax Distortions, chapter 6, pages 112-153, Edward Elgar Publishing.
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    5. Ricardo J. Caballero & Mohamad L. Hammour, 1996. "On the Timing and Efficiency of Creative Destruction," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 111(3), pages 805-852.
    6. Bovenberg, Ary Lans & de Mooij, Ruud A., 1995. "Environmental taxation and the double-dividend: The role of factor substitution and capital mobility," Discussion Papers, Series II 258, University of Konstanz, Collaborative Research Centre (SFB) 178 "Internationalization of the Economy".
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    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • E60 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Macroeconomic Policy, Macroeconomic Aspects of Public Finance, and General Outlook - - - General
    • H32 - Public Economics - - Fiscal Policies and Behavior of Economic Agents - - - Firm
    • J3 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs
    • J5 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Labor-Management Relations, Trade Unions, and Collective Bargaining

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