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Political competition within and between parties: an application to environmental policy

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Author Info
Cremer, Helmuth
De Donder, Philippe
Gahvari, Firouz

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Abstract

This paper presents a political economy model that explains the low rate of emission taxes in the U.S., as well as the fact that neither Democrats nor Republicans propose to increase them. The voters differ according to their wage and capital incomes which are assumed to have a bivariate lognormal distribution. They vote over the emission tax rate and a budgetary rule that specifies how to redistribute the tax proceeds. The political competition is modeled à la Roemer (2001) where the two parties care for the policies they propose as well as the probability of winning; the equilibrium solution concept is the Party Unanimity Nash Equilibrium (PUNE). We calibrate the model using U.S. data and compute the PUNEs numerically. Two main results emerge. All "viable" PUNEs entail subsidies on emissions (as opposed to taxes). This indicates the importance of distributional concerns in garnering political support for environmental policies. Second, parties always propose an interior value for the budgetary rule even though all citizens prefer extreme values. This illustrates the emergence of political compromise to attract voters.

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Paper provided by C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers in its series CEPR Discussion Papers with number 5228.

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Date of creation: Sep 2005
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Handle: RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:5228

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Related research
Keywords: distributional concerns; Emission taxes; political competition; political compromise; PUNE;

Other versions of this item:

Find related papers by JEL classification:
D72 - Microeconomics - - Analysis of Collective Decision-Making - - - Models of Political Processes: Rent-seeking, Elections, Legislatures, and Voting Behavior
H23 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Externalities; Redistributive Effects; Environmental Taxes and Subsidies

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References listed on IDEAS
Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:
  1. Bos, Dieter, 2000. "Earmarked taxation: welfare versus political support," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 75(3), pages 439-462, March. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  2. Helmuth Cremer & Philippe De Donder & Firouz Gahvari, 2004. "Political Sustainability and the Design of Environmental Taxes," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer, vol. 11(6), pages 703-719, November. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  3. Gately, D. & Huntington, H.G., 2001. "The Asymmetric Effects of Changes in Price and Income on Energy and Oil Demand," Working Papers 01-01, C.V. Starr Center for Applied Economics, New York University. [Downloadable!]
  4. Cremer, Helmuth & Gahvari, Firouz & Ladoux, Norbert, 2003. "Environmental taxes with heterogeneous consumers: an application to energy consumption in France," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 87(12), pages 2791-2815, December. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  5. Helmuth Cremer & Philippe De Donder & Firouz Gahvari, 2004. "Taxes, Budgetary Rule and Majority Voting," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 119(3_4), pages 335-358, 06. [Downloadable!]
  6. Brett, Craig & Keen, Michael, 2000. "Political uncertainty and the earmarking of environmental taxes," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 75(3), pages 315-340, March. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  7. John E. Roemer, 1999. "The Democratic Political Economy of Progressive Income Taxation," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 67(1), pages 1-20, January.
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  8. E. Raphael Branch, 1993. "Short Run Income Elasticity of Demand for Residential Electricity Using Consumer Expenditure Survey Data," The Energy Journal, International Association for Energy Economics, vol. 14(4), pages 111-122.
  9. Marsiliani, Laura & Renstrom, Thomas I, 2000. "Time Inconsistency in Environmental Policy: Tax Earmarking as a Commitment Solution," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 110(462), pages C123-38, March. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  10. Laslier, Jean-Francois & Picard, Nathalie, 2002. "Distributive Politics and Electoral Competition," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 103(1), pages 106-130, March. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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Cited by:
(explanations, Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.)

  1. Anesi, Vincent & De Donder, Philippe, 2008. "Secondary Issues and Party Politics: An Application to Environmental Policy," CEPR Discussion Papers 6774, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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