IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/zur/iewwpx/013.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Environmental Tax Reform: Efficiency and Political Feasibility

Author

Listed:
  • Stefan Felder
  • Reto Schleiniger

Abstract

Command-and-control measures, despite their inefficiencies, are still the standard in environmental policy. This might be due to the fact that command-and-control instruments prevent monetary redistribution between sectors and households and leave property rights on remaining pollution with the emittents. The present paper interprets the no-redistribution policy as a political constraint and investigates on more efficient alternatives to command-and- control, using a computable general equilibrium model for Switzerland. Simulation results render schemes that refund environmental tax revenues by a sector-by-sector-subsidy on labor or output as welfare enhancing.

Suggested Citation

  • Stefan Felder & Reto Schleiniger, "undated". "Environmental Tax Reform: Efficiency and Political Feasibility," IEW - Working Papers 013, Institute for Empirical Research in Economics - University of Zurich.
    • Handle: RePEc:zur:iewwpx:013
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.zora.uzh.ch/id/eprint/51831/1/iewwp013.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Yohe, Gary W, 1976. "Polluters' Profits and Political Response: Direct Control versus Taxes: Comment," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 66(5), pages 981-982, December.
    2. de Bovenberg, A Lans & Mooij, Ruud A, 1994. "Environmental Levies and Distortionary Taxation," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 84(4), pages 1085-1089, September.
    3. N/A, 1985. "General Policy," India Quarterly: A Journal of International Affairs, , vol. 41(1), pages 74-79, January.
    4. Reto Schleiniger & Stefan Felder, 1998. "Effizienz und politische Durchsetzbarkeit: Die Verwendung der Einnahmen einer C02-Abgabe in der Schweiz," Swiss Journal of Economics and Statistics (SJES), Swiss Society of Economics and Statistics (SSES), vol. 134(III), pages 355-367, September.
    5. N/A, 1985. "General Policy," India Quarterly: A Journal of International Affairs, , vol. 41(1), pages 112-117, January.
    6. Cansier, Dieter & Krumm, Raimund, 1997. "Air pollutant taxation: an empirical survey," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 23(1), pages 59-70, October.
    7. Goulder Lawrence H., 1995. "Effects of Carbon Taxes in an Economy with Prior Tax Distortions: An Intertemporal General Equilibrium Analysis," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 29(3), pages 271-297, November.
    8. Buchanan, James M & Tullock, Gordon, 1975. "Polluters' Profits and Political Response: Direct Controls Versus Taxes," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 65(1), pages 139-147, March.
    9. Coelho, Philip R P, 1976. "Polluters' Profits and Political Response: Direct Control versus Taxes: Comment," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 66(5), pages 976-978, December.
    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. Ballard, Charles L. & Fullerton, Don & Shoven, John B. & Whalley, John, 2009. "A General Equilibrium Model for Tax Policy Evaluation," National Bureau of Economic Research Books, University of Chicago Press, number 9780226036335, August.
    12. Hahn, Robert W, 1990. "The Political Economy of Environmental Regulation: Towards a Unifying Framework," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 65(1), pages 21-47, April.
    13. Main, Robert S & Baird, Charles W, 1976. "Polluters' Profits and Political Response: Direct Control versus Taxes: Comment," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 66(5), pages 979-980, December.
    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. Reto Schleiniger & Stefan Felder, 1998. "Effizienz und politische Durchsetzbarkeit: Die Verwendung der Einnahmen einer C02-Abgabe in der Schweiz," Swiss Journal of Economics and Statistics (SJES), Swiss Society of Economics and Statistics (SSES), vol. 134(III), pages 355-367, September.
    2. Felder, Stefan & Schleiniger, Reto, 2002. "Environmental tax reform: efficiency and political feasibility," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 42(1-2), pages 107-116, August.
    3. Reto Schleiniger & Stefan Felder, "undated". "Fossile Energiepolitik jenseits von Kyoto," IEW - Working Papers 078, Institute for Empirical Research in Economics - University of Zurich.
    4. Stavins, Robert & Keohane, Nathaniel & Revesz, Richard, 1997. "The Positive Political Economy of Instrument Choice in Environmental Policy," RFF Working Paper Series dp-97-25, Resources for the Future.
    5. Pizer, William A. & Burtraw, Dallas & Harrington, Winston & Newell, Richard G. & Sanchirico, James N., 2005. "Modeling Economywide versus Sectoral Climate Policies Using Combined Aggregate-Sectoral Models," Discussion Papers 10502, Resources for the Future.
    6. Marcel Boyer & Jean-Jacques Laffont, 1996. "Toward a Political Theory of Environmental Policy," CIRANO Working Papers 96s-07, CIRANO.
    7. Reto Schleiniger, "undated". "Energy Tax Reform with Exemptions for the Energy-Intensiv Export Sector," IEW - Working Papers 073, Institute for Empirical Research in Economics - University of Zurich.
    8. Stavins, Robert, 2004. "Introduction to the Political Economy of Environmental Regulations," RFF Working Paper Series dp-04-12, Resources for the Future.
    9. Inge Mayeres, 1999. "The Distributional Impacts of Policies for the Control of Transport Externalities.An Applied General Equilibrium Model," Working Papers 1999.8, Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei.
    10. Gilbert E. Metcalf, 1998. "A Distributional Analysis of an Environmental Tax Shift," Discussion Papers Series, Department of Economics, Tufts University 9801, Department of Economics, Tufts University.
    11. Reto Schleiniger, "undated". "Ecological Tax Reform with Exemptions for the Export Sector in a two Sector two Factor Model," IEW - Working Papers 029, Institute for Empirical Research in Economics - University of Zurich.
    12. Michael Reksulak & William Shughart, 2012. "What should government do? Problems of social cost, externalities and all that," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 152(1), pages 103-114, July.
    13. Ferran Sancho, 2003. "Energy Tax Simulation in a Flexible CGE Model of Catalonia," Working Papers 95, Barcelona School of Economics.
    14. Touhami Abdelkhalek & Jean-Marie Dufour, 1998. "Statistical Inference For Computable General Equilibrium Models, With Application To A Model Of The Moroccan Economy," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 80(4), pages 520-534, November.
    15. AFM Mohiuddin & Ryuta Ray Kato, 2009. "Trade Liberalization of the Fishery Industry of Japan," Working Papers EMS_2009_10, Research Institute, International University of Japan.
    16. Craig Burnside & Martin Eichenbaum & Sergio Rebelo, 1995. "Capital Utilization and Returns to Scale," NBER Chapters, in: NBER Macroeconomics Annual 1995, Volume 10, pages 67-124, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    17. Andreas Peichl, 2009. "The Benefits and Problems of Linking Micro and Macro Models — Evidence from a Flat Tax Analysis," Journal of Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 12(2), pages 301-329, November.
    18. Zabinski, Daniel & Selden, Thomas M. & Moeller, John F. & Banthin, Jessica S., 1999. "Medical savings accounts: microsimulation results from a model with adverse selection," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 18(2), pages 195-218, April.
    19. Mark Partridge & Dan Rickman, 2010. "Computable General Equilibrium (CGE) Modelling for Regional Economic Development Analysis," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 44(10), pages 1311-1328.
    20. Engel, Eduardo M. R. A. & Galetovic, Alexander & Raddatz, Claudio E., 1999. "Taxes and income distribution in Chile: some unpleasant redistributive arithmetic," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 59(1), pages 155-192, June.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Environmental tax reform; price-standard-approach; public choice; computable general equilibrium model;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • C68 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Mathematical Methods; Programming Models; Mathematical and Simulation Modeling - - - Computable General Equilibrium Models
    • H22 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Incidence
    • H23 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Externalities; Redistributive Effects; Environmental Taxes and Subsidies
    • Q28 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Renewable Resources and Conservation - - - Government 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:zur:iewwpx:013. 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: Severin Oswald (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    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.