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The Incidence of a U.S. Carbon Tax: A Lifetime and Regional Analysis

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Author Info
Kevin A. Hassett
Aparna Mathur
Gilbert E. Metcalf

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Abstract

This paper measures the direct and indirect incidence of a carbon tax using current income and two measures of lifetime income to rank households. Our results suggest that carbon taxes are more regressive when annual income is used as a measure of economic welfare than when proxies for lifetime income are used. Further, the direct component of the tax, in any given year, is significantly more regressive than the indirect component. In fact, for 1987, the indirect component of the tax is mildly progressive. We observe a modest shift over time with the direct component of carbon taxes becoming less regressive and the indirect component becoming more regressive. These effects mostly offset each other and the distribution of the total tax burden has not changed much over time. In addition we find that regional variation has fluctuated over the years of our anlaysis. By 2003 there is little systematic variation in carbon tax burdens across regions of the country.

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Paper provided by National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc in its series NBER Working Papers with number 13554.

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Date of creation: Oct 2007
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Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:13554

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Find related papers by JEL classification:
H2 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue
Q4 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Energy
Q54 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - Climate; Natural Disasters

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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. S. Paltsev & J. Reilly & H. Jacoby & A. Gurgel & G. Metcalf & A. Sokolov & J. Holak, 2007. "Assessment of U.S. Cap-and-Trade Proposals," Working Papers 0705, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Center for Energy and Environmental Policy Research. [Downloadable!]
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  1. Gilbert Metcalf & David Weisbach, 2008. "The Design of a Carbon Tax," Discussion Papers Series, Department of Economics, Tufts University 0727, Department of Economics, Tufts University. [Downloadable!]
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  2. Gilbert E. Metcalf & Sergey Paltsev & John Reilly & Henry Jacoby & Jennifer F. Holak, 2008. "Analysis of U.S. Greenhouse Gas Tax Proposals," NBER Working Papers 13980, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  3. Eimear Leahy & Sean Lyons & Edgar L.W. Morgenroth & Richard S.J. Tol, . "The Spatial Incidence of a Carbon Tax in Ireland," Working Papers FNU-174, Research unit Sustainability and Global Change, Hamburg University. [Downloadable!]
  4. Gilbert E. Metcalf, 2008. "Designing A Carbon Tax to Reduce U.S. Greenhouse Gas Emissions," NBER Working Papers 14375, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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