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Greener and Fairer: A Progressive Environmental Tax Reform for Spain

Author

Listed:
  • Christoph Boehringer

    (University of Oldenburg, Department of Economics)

  • Xaquin Garcia-Muros

    (Basque Centre for Climate Change (BC3), Leioa, Spain)

  • Mikel González-Eguino

    (University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU), Bilbao, Spain)

Abstract

Environmental externalities call for the use of environmental taxes to get prices right and thereby reduce environmental pressures. To date, however, the Spanish government makes only limited use of environmental taxes. One major reason for the policy reluctance are concerns on the regressive impacts of environmental taxes. We argue that policy can hedge against these concerns by means of revenue recycling. More specifically, we assess the impacts of a green tax reform where additional revenues are redistributed lump-sum to Spanish households on an equal-per-capita basis. Based on quantitative evidence from coupled microsimulation and computable equilibrium analyses we find that such a green tax reform leads to a substantial reduction in harmful emissions while having a progressive impact.

Suggested Citation

  • Christoph Boehringer & Xaquin Garcia-Muros & Mikel González-Eguino, 2019. "Greener and Fairer: A Progressive Environmental Tax Reform for Spain," Working Papers V-418-19, University of Oldenburg, Department of Economics, revised Jan 2019.
    • Handle: RePEc:old:dpaper:418
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Mayer, Jakob & Dugan, Anna & Bachner, Gabriel & Steininger, Karl W., 2021. "Is carbon pricing regressive? Insights from a recursive-dynamic CGE analysis with heterogeneous households for Austria," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 104(C).
    2. Li, Zhengda & Zheng, Chengxin & Liu, Aimin & Yang, Yang & Yuan, Xiaoling, 2022. "Environmental taxes, green subsidies, and cleaner production willingness: Evidence from China's publicly traded companies," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 183(C).
    3. Böhringer, Christoph & García-Muros, Xaquín & González-Eguino, Mikel, 2022. "Who bears the burden of greening electricity?," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 105(C).
    4. Tomás, Manuel & García-Muros, Xaquín & Alonso-Epelde, Eva & Arto, Iñaki & Rodríguez-Zúñiga, Alejandro & Monge, Cristina & González-Eguino, Mikel, 2023. "Ensuring a just energy transition: A distributional analysis of diesel tax reform in Spain with stakeholder engagement," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 177(C).
    5. Ihor Nazarkevych & Olga Sych, 2023. "Taxation as a tool of implementation of the EU Green Deal in Ukraine," Regional Science Policy & Practice, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 15(1), pages 144-160, February.
    6. Tchorzewska, K.B. & Garcia-Quevedo, J. & Martinez-Ros, E., 2022. "The heterogeneous effects of environmental taxation on green technologies," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 51(7).
    7. Albertsen, Lau H. & Andersen, Mads & Boscán, Luis R. & Santos, Athila Q., 2020. "Implementing dynamic electricity taxation in Denmark," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 143(C).
    8. García-Muros, Xaquín & Morris, Jennifer & Paltsev, Sergey, 2022. "Toward a just energy transition: A distributional analysis of low-carbon policies in the USA," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 105(C).
    9. Garaffa, Rafael & Cunha, Bruno S.L. & Cruz, Talita & Bezerra, Paula & Lucena, André F.P. & Gurgel, Angelo C., 2021. "Distributional effects of carbon pricing in Brazil under the Paris Agreement," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 101(C).
    10. García-Quevedo, Jose & Jové-Llopis, Elisenda, 2021. "Environmental policies and energy efficiency investments. An industry-level analysis," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 156(C).

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Environmental tax reform; household incidence; computable general equilibrium; microsimulation;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • F0 - International Economics - - General

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