IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/gov/wpaper/1605.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Optimality of relaxing revenue-neutral restrictions in green tax reforms

Author

Listed:
  • Eduardo L. Giménez
  • Miguel Rodríguez

Abstract

Green Tax Reforms [GTR] have been initially devised as a policy proposal to tackle simultaneously several political goals, such as accomplishing environmental objectives together with lesser tax distortions requiring tax revenue recycling. Yet, recent fiscal stress episodes in many developed countries have defied this view. In this paper, we assess the convenience of revenue-neutral restrictions in GTR on efficiency basis. Usual revenue-neutral conditions impose on policymakers additional constraints that may restrain welfare gains. Our conclusions may provide theoretical support for the third generation of GTR (calling for a departure from revenue-neutral conditions on GTR), as well as some recent legal European experiences.

Suggested Citation

  • Eduardo L. Giménez & Miguel Rodríguez, 2016. "Optimality of relaxing revenue-neutral restrictions in green tax reforms," Working Papers. Collection A: Public economics, governance and decentralization 1605, Universidade de Vigo, GEN - Governance and Economics research Network.
  • Handle: RePEc:gov:wpaper:1605
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://infogen.webs.uvigo.es/WP/WP1605.pdf
    File Function: First version, 2016
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Bovenberg, A Lans & Goulder, Lawrence H, 1996. "Optimal Environmental Taxation in the Presence of Other Taxes: General-Equilibrium Analyses," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 86(4), pages 985-1000, September.
    2. Ian W.H. Parry & Roberton C. Williams III & Lawrence H. Goulder, 2002. "When Can Carbon Abatement Policies Increase Welfare? The Fundamental Role of Distorted Factor Markets," Chapters, in: Lawrence H. Goulder (ed.), Environmental Policy Making in Economies with Prior Tax Distortions, chapter 25, pages 471-503, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    3. 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.
    4. Clinch, J. Peter & Dunne, Louise & Dresner, Simon, 2006. "Environmental and wider implications of political impediments to environmental tax reform," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 34(8), pages 960-970, May.
    5. Bovenberg, A. Lans & Goulder, Lawrence H., 2002. "Environmental taxation and regulation," Handbook of Public Economics, in: A. J. Auerbach & M. Feldstein (ed.), Handbook of Public Economics, edition 1, volume 3, chapter 23, pages 1471-1545, Elsevier.
    6. Bovenberg, A.L. & Goulder, L.H., 1996. "Optimal environmental taxation in the presence of other taxes : General equilibrium analyses," Other publications TiSEM 5d4b7517-c5c8-4ef6-ab76-3, Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management.
    7. Kim Seung-Rae, 2002. "Optimal Environmental Regulation in the Presence of Other Taxes: The Role of Non-separable Preferences and Technology," The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 1(1), pages 1-27, July.
    8. Charles Ballard & John Goddeeris & Sang-Kyum Kim, 2005. "Non-Homothetic Preferences and the Non-Environmental Effects of Environmental Taxes," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 12(2), pages 115-130, March.
    9. Jan Siegmeier & Linus Mattauch & Max Franks & David Klenert & Anselm Schultes & Ottmar Edenhofer, 2015. "A Public Finance Perspective on Climate Policy: Six Interactions That May Enhance Welfare," Working Papers 2015.31, Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei.
    10. 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.
    11. Rausch, Sebastian, 2013. "Fiscal consolidation and climate policy: An overlapping generations perspective," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 40(S1), pages 134-148.
    12. Dresner, Simon & Dunne, Louise & Clinch, Peter & Beuermann, Christiane, 2006. "Social and political responses to ecological tax reform in Europe: an introduction to the special issue," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 34(8), pages 895-904, May.
    13. Goulder, Lawrence H., 2013. "Climate change policy's interactions with the tax system," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 40(S1), pages 3-11.
    14. Douglas Sutherland & Peter Hoeller & Rossana Merola, 2012. "Fiscal Consolidation: How Much, How Fast and by What Means?," OECD Economic Policy Papers 1, OECD Publishing.
    15. Robert P. Hagemann, 2012. "Fiscal Consolidation: Part 6. What Are the Best Policy Instruments for Fiscal Consolidation?," OECD Economics Department Working Papers 937, OECD Publishing.
    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. Rodríguez, Miguel & Pena-Boquete, Yolanda & Pardo-Fernández, Juan Carlos, 2016. "Revisiting Environmental Kuznets Curves through the energy price lens," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 95(C), pages 32-41.

    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. West, Sarah E. & Williams III, Roberton C., 2007. "Optimal taxation and cross-price effects on labor supply: Estimates of the optimal gas tax," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 91(3-4), pages 593-617, April.
    2. Sartzetakis, Eftichios S. & Tsigaris, Panagiotis D., 2009. "Uncertainty and the double dividend hypothesis," Environment and Development Economics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 14(5), pages 565-585, October.
    3. : Eduardo L. Giménez (a) & Miguel Rodríguez, "undated". "Pigou’S Dividend Versus Ramsey’S Dividend In The Double Dividend Literature," Working Papers 2-06 Classification-JEL :, Instituto de Estudios Fiscales.
    4. Giménez, Eduardo L. & Rodríguez, Miguel, 2010. "Reevaluating the first and the second dividends of environmental tax reforms," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 38(11), pages 6654-6661, November.
    5. Jun Rentschler & Raimund Bleischwitz & Florian Flachenecker, 2018. "On imperfect competition and market distortions: the causes of corporate under-investment in energy and material efficiency," International Economics and Economic Policy, Springer, vol. 15(1), pages 159-183, January.
    6. Sarah E. West & Roberton C. Williams, 2004. "Empirical Estimates for Environmental Policy Making in a Second-Best Setting," NBER Working Papers 10330, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    7. Bandyopadhyay, Gopal & Bagheri, Fathollah & Mann, Michael, 2007. "Reduction of fossil fuel emissions in the USA: A holistic approach towards policy formulation," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 35(2), pages 950-965, February.
    8. A. Lans Bovenberg & Lawrence H. Goulder, 2001. "Neutralizing the Adverse Industry Impacts of CO2 Abatement Policies: What Does It Cost?," NBER Chapters, in: Behavioral and Distributional Effects of Environmental Policy, pages 45-90, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    9. Ross McKitrick, 2017. "Emission Taxes and Damage Thresholds in the Presence of Pre-existing Regulations," Working Papers 1705, University of Guelph, Department of Economics and Finance.
    10. Jean-Christophe Caffet, 2005. "Health effects and optimal environmental taxes in welfare state countries," Cahiers de la Maison des Sciences Economiques v05049, Université Panthéon-Sorbonne (Paris 1).
    11. Williams III, Roberton C., 2003. "Health effects and optimal environmental taxes," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 87(2), pages 323-335, February.
    12. Pang, Yu, 2019. "Taxing pollution and profits: A bargaining approach," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 78(C), pages 278-288.
    13. Xavier Labandeira & José M. Labeaga & Xiral López-Otero, 2019. "New Green Tax Reforms: Ex-Ante Assessments for Spain," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(20), pages 1-25, October.
    14. Fullerton, Don & Wolverton, Ann, 2005. "The two-part instrument in a second-best world," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 89(9-10), pages 1961-1975, September.
    15. Ian W. H. Parry, 2003. "Fiscal Interactions and the Case for Carbon Taxes Over Grandfathered Carbon Permits," Oxford Review of Economic Policy, Oxford University Press and Oxford Review of Economic Policy Limited, vol. 19(3), pages 385-399.
    16. Takumi HAIBARA & Hiroshi OHTA, 2011. "A New Proposal of Ecological Tax Reform," GSICS Working Paper Series 24, Graduate School of International Cooperation Studies, Kobe University.
    17. Goulder, Lawrence H., 2013. "Climate change policy's interactions with the tax system," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 40(S1), pages 3-11.
    18. Manresa, Antonio & Sancho, Ferran, 2005. "Implementing a double dividend: recycling ecotaxes towards lower labour taxes," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 33(12), pages 1577-1585, August.
    19. Franziska Klein & Jeroen van den Bergh, 2021. "The employment double dividend of environmental tax reforms: exploring the role of agent behaviour and social interaction," Journal of Environmental Economics and Policy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 10(2), pages 189-213, April.
    20. King, Maia & Tarbush, Bassel & Teytelboym, Alexander, 2019. "Targeted carbon tax reforms," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 119(C), pages 526-547.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    green tax reforms; revenue neutrality; optimal taxation;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • H23 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Externalities; Redistributive Effects; Environmental Taxes and Subsidies
    • Q48 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Energy - - - 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:gov:wpaper:1605. 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: Patricio Sanchez-Fernandez (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/geviges.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.