IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/transa/v45y2011i7p583-597.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Impacts of an emission based private car taxation policy - First year ex-post analysis

Author

Listed:
  • Rogan, Fionn
  • Dennehy, Emer
  • Daly, Hannah
  • Howley, Martin
  • Ó Gallachóir, Brian P.

Abstract

This paper assesses the impacts of a targeted policy designed to influence car purchasing trends towards lower CO2 emitting vehicles. Vehicle registration tax and annual motor tax rates in Ireland changed in July 2008 from being based on engine size to emissions performance of cars. This paper provides a one year ex-post analysis of the first year of the tax change, tracking the change in purchasing trends arising from the measure related to specific CO2 emissions, engine size and fuel, and the implications for car prices, CO2 emissions abatement, and revenue gathered. While engine efficiency improvements had been offset by purchasing trends towards larger and generally less efficient cars in the past, with the average MJ/km remaining constant from 2000 to 2007, this analysis shows that in the first year of the new taxation system the average specific emissions of new cars fell by 13% to 145Â g/km. This was brought about, not by a reduction in engine size, but rather through a significant shift to diesel cars. Despite an unexpected reduction in car sales due to a recession in 2008, the policy measure has had a larger than anticipated impact on CO2 emissions, calculated to be 5.9Â ktCO2 in the first year of the measure. The strong price signal did however result in a 33% reduction in tax revenue from VRT, in financial terms amounting to a drop of [euro]166 million compared to a baseline situation.

Suggested Citation

  • Rogan, Fionn & Dennehy, Emer & Daly, Hannah & Howley, Martin & Ó Gallachóir, Brian P., 2011. "Impacts of an emission based private car taxation policy - First year ex-post analysis," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 45(7), pages 583-597, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:transa:v:45:y:2011:i:7:p:583-597
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S096585641100053X
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Sterner, Thomas, 2007. "Fuel taxes: An important instrument for climate policy," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 35(6), pages 3194-3202, June.
    2. Stanley, John K. & Hensher, David A. & Loader, Chris, 2011. "Road transport and climate change: Stepping off the greenhouse gas," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 45(10), pages 1020-1030.
    3. Shiau, Ching-Shin Norman & Michalek, Jeremy J. & Hendrickson, Chris T., 2009. "A structural analysis of vehicle design responses to Corporate Average Fuel Economy policy," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 43(9-10), pages 814-828, November.
    4. Moore, Adrian T. & Staley, Samuel R. & Poole Jr., Robert W., 2010. "The role of VMT reduction in meeting climate change policy goals," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 44(8), pages 565-574, October.
    5. Ó Gallachóir, Brian P. & Howley, Martin & Cunningham, Stephen & Bazilian, Morgan, 2009. "How private car purchasing trends offset efficiency gains and the successful energy policy response," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 37(10), pages 3790-3802, October.
    6. Mandell, Svante, 2009. "Policies towards a more efficient car fleet," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 37(12), pages 5184-5191, December.
    7. Hull, David & Ó Gallachóir, Brian P. & Walker, Neil, 2009. "Development of a modelling framework in response to new European energy-efficiency regulatory obligations: The Irish experience," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 37(12), pages 5363-5375, December.
    8. Poudenx, Pascal, 2008. "The effect of transportation policies on energy consumption and greenhouse gas emission from urban passenger transportation," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 42(6), pages 901-909, July.
    9. Giblin, S. & McNabola, A., 2009. "Modelling the impacts of a carbon emission-differentiated vehicle tax system on CO2 emissions intensity from new vehicle purchases in Ireland," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 37(4), pages 1404-1411, April.
    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. Mabit, Stefan L., 2014. "Vehicle type choice under the influence of a tax reform and rising fuel prices," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 64(C), pages 32-42.
    2. Hennessy, Hugh & Tol, Richard S.J., 2011. "The impact of tax reform on new car purchases in Ireland," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 39(11), pages 7059-7067.
    3. Fu, Miao & Andrew Kelly, J., 2012. "Carbon related taxation policies for road transport: Efficacy of ownership and usage taxes, and the role of public transport and motorist cost perception on policy outcomes," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 22(C), pages 57-69.
    4. Perrels, Adriaan & Tuovinen, Tarja, 2012. "The Effectiveness of Differentiation of the Finnish Car Purchase Tax according to Carbon Dioxide Emission Performance," Research Reports 168, VATT Institute for Economic Research.
    5. Ciccone, Alice, 2018. "Environmental effects of a vehicle tax reform: Empirical evidence from Norway," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 69(C), pages 141-157.
    6. Kloess, Maximilian & Müller, Andreas, 2011. "Simulating the impact of policy, energy prices and technological progress on the passenger car fleet in Austria--A model based analysis 2010-2050," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 39(9), pages 5045-5062, September.
    7. Brand, Christian & Anable, Jillian & Tran, Martino, 2013. "Accelerating the transformation to a low carbon passenger transport system: The role of car purchase taxes, feebates, road taxes and scrappage incentives in the UK," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 49(C), pages 132-148.
    8. Ciccone, Alice, 2015. "Environmental Effects of a Vehicle Tax Reform: Empirical Evidence from Norway," Memorandum 03/2015, Oslo University, Department of Economics.
    9. Driscoll, Áine & Lyons, Seán & Mariuzzo, Franco & Tol, Richard S.J., 2013. "Simulating demand for electric vehicles using revealed preference data," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 62(C), pages 686-696.
    10. Daly, Hannah E. & Ó Gallachóir, Brian P., 2012. "Future energy and emissions policy scenarios in Ireland for private car transport," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 51(C), pages 172-183.
    11. Hennessy, Hugh & Tol, Richard S. J., 2010. "The Impact of Climate Policy on Private Car Ownership in Ireland," Papers WP342, Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI).
    12. Yan, Shiyu & Eskeland, Gunnar S., 2018. "Greening the vehicle fleet: Norway's CO2-Differentiated registration tax," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 91(C), pages 247-262.
    13. Daly, Hannah E. & Ó Gallachóir, Brian P., 2011. "Modelling future private car energy demand in Ireland," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 39(12), pages 7815-7824.
    14. Ciccone, Alice, 2014. "Is it all about CO2 emissions? The environmental effects of a tax reform for new vehicles in Norway," Memorandum 19/2014, Oslo University, Department of Economics.
    15. Montag, Josef, 2015. "The simple economics of motor vehicle pollution: A case for fuel tax," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 85(C), pages 138-149.
    16. Saket, Mohammad Javad & Maleki, Abbas & Hezaveh, Erfan Doroudgar & Karimi, Mohammad Sadegh, 2019. "Institutional analysis on impediments over fuel consumption reduction at Iran's transportation niches," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 129(C), pages 861-867.
    17. Li, Jun, 2011. "Decoupling urban transport from GHG emissions in Indian cities--A critical review and perspectives," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 39(6), pages 3503-3514, June.
    18. L. (Lisa B.) Ryan & Ivan Petrov, 2019. "Vehicle Tax Design and Car Purchase Choices: A Case Study of Ireland," Open Access publications 10197/11466, School of Economics, University College Dublin.
    19. Tesemma, Tewodros, 2023. "Encouraging adoption of fuel-efficient vehicles – A policy reform evaluation from Ethiopia," Working Papers in Economics 838, University of Gothenburg, Department of Economics.
    20. Gössling, Stefan, 2013. "Urban transport transitions: Copenhagen, City of Cyclists," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 33(C), pages 196-206.

    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:eee:transa:v:45:y:2011:i:7:p:583-597. 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: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/547/description#description .

    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.