IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/aea/aecrev/v104y2014i5p563-68.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Tax Policy Issues in Designing a Carbon Tax

Author

Listed:
  • Donald B. Marron
  • Eric J. Toder

Abstract

A carbon tax is a promising tool for discouraging the greenhouse gas emissions that cause climate change. In principle, a well-designed tax could reduce the risk of climate change, minimize the cost of emissions reductions, encourage innovation in low-carbon technologies, and raise new public revenue. But designing a real-world carbon tax poses significant challenges. We analyze those challenges from a public finance perspective, emphasizing three tax policy design issues: setting the tax rate, collecting the tax, and using the resulting revenue. The benefits of a carbon tax will depend on how policymakers address those issues.

Suggested Citation

  • Donald B. Marron & Eric J. Toder, 2014. "Tax Policy Issues in Designing a Carbon Tax," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 104(5), pages 563-568, May.
  • Handle: RePEc:aea:aecrev:v:104:y:2014:i:5:p:563-68
    Note: DOI: 10.1257/aer.104.5.563
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.aeaweb.org/articles.php?doi=10.1257/aer.104.5.563
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: http://www.aeaweb.org/aer/data/10405/P2014_1163_data.zip
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: http://www.aeaweb.org/aer/ds/10405/P2014_1163_ds.zip
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to AEA members and institutional subscribers.
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Congressional Budget Office, 2013. "Options for Reducing the Deficit: 2014 to 2023," Reports 44715, Congressional Budget Office.
    2. Gilbert E. Metcalf, 2014. "Using the Tax System to Address Competition Issues With a Carbon Tax," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association;National Tax Journal, vol. 67(4), pages 779-806, December.
    3. Dinan, Terry & Rogers, Diane Lim, 2002. "Distributional Effects of Carbon AllowanceTrading: How Government Decisions Determine Winners and Losers," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association, vol. 55(N. 2), pages 199-221, June.
    4. Congressional Budget Office, 2013. "Options for Reducing the Deficit: 2014 to 2023," Reports 44715, Congressional Budget Office.
    5. Milton Friedman, 1957. "Introduction to "A Theory of the Consumption Function"," NBER Chapters, in: A Theory of the Consumption Function, pages 1-6, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    6. Milton Friedman, 1957. "A Theory of the Consumption Function," NBER Books, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc, number frie57-1, March.
    7. Congressional Budget Office, 2013. "Options for Reducing the Deficit: 2014 to 2023," Reports 44715, Congressional Budget Office.
    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. Mathur, Aparna & Morris, Adele C., 2014. "Distributional effects of a carbon tax in broader U.S. fiscal reform," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 66(C), pages 326-334.
    2. Nils Ohlendorf & Michael Jakob & Jan Christoph Minx & Carsten Schröder & Jan Christoph Steckel, 2021. "Distributional Impacts of Carbon Pricing: A Meta-Analysis," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 78(1), pages 1-42, January.
    3. Gaudette Étienne & Tysinger Bryan & Goldman Dana P. & Cassil Alwyn, 2015. "Health and Health Care of Medicare Beneficiaries in 2030," Forum for Health Economics & Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 18(2), pages 75-96, December.
    4. Rausch, Sebastian & Metcalf, Gilbert E. & Reilly, John M., 2011. "Distributional impacts of carbon pricing: A general equilibrium approach with micro-data for households," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 33(S1), pages 20-33.
    5. Nils Ohlendorf & Michael Jakob & Jan Christoph Minx & Carsten Schröder & Jan Christoph Steckel, 2018. "Distributional Impacts of Climate Mitigation Policies - a Meta-Analysis," Discussion Papers of DIW Berlin 1776, DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research.
    6. Rausch Sebastian & Metcalf Gilbert E. & Reilly John M & Paltsev Sergey, 2010. "Distributional Implications of Alternative U.S. Greenhouse Gas Control Measures," The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 10(2), pages 1-46, July.
    7. Sarah K. Burns & Philip M. Lurie & John E. Whitley, 2018. "Analysis of an Alternative Military Healthcare Benefit Design," Defence and Peace Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 29(1), pages 6-23, January.
    8. Gilbert E. Metcalf, 2018. "The Impact of Removing Tax Preferences for US Oil and Natural Gas Production: Measuring Tax Subsidies by an Equivalent Price Impact Approach," Journal of the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, University of Chicago Press, vol. 5(1), pages 1-37.
    9. Schmitz, Christoph & Biewald, Anne & Lotze-Campen, Hermann & Popp, Alexander, 2011. "Increased Agricultural Trade and its Impacts on Food System, Land-use and Greenhouse Gas Emissions," Conference papers 332165, Purdue University, Center for Global Trade Analysis, Global Trade Analysis Project.
    10. Chul‐Woo Kwon & Peter F. Orazem & Daniel M. Otto, 2006. "Off‐farm labor supply responses to permanent and transitory farm income," Agricultural Economics, International Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 34(1), pages 59-67, January.
    11. Bunting, David, 2009. "The saving decline: Macro-facts, micro-behavior," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 70(1-2), pages 282-295, May.
    12. Jonathan Gruber & Aaron Yelowitz, 1999. "Public Health Insurance and Private Savings," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 107(6), pages 1249-1274, December.
    13. Lang, Harald, 1987. "Herman Wold on Optimal Properties of Exponentially Weighted Forecasts," Working Paper Series 179, Research Institute of Industrial Economics.
    14. Brautzsch, Hans-Ulrich & Günther, Jutta & Loose, Brigitte & Ludwig, Udo & Nulsch, Nicole, 2015. "Can R&D subsidies counteract the economic crisis? – Macroeconomic effects in Germany," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 44(3), pages 623-633.
    15. Sadullah Çelik & Yasemin Özerkek, 2008. "Panel cointegration analysis of consumer confidence and personal consumption in the European Union," Journal of Business Economics and Management, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 10(2), pages 161-168, February.
    16. repec:spo:wpecon:info:hdl:2441/f0uohitsgqh8dhk9814kl7606 is not listed on IDEAS
    17. Ricardo Barradas & Ines Tomas, 2023. "Household indebtedness in the European Union countries: Going beyond the mainstream interpretation," PSL Quarterly Review, Economia civile, vol. 76(304), pages 21-49.
    18. Alok Bhargava, 2006. "Modelling the Health of Filipino Children," World Scientific Book Chapters, in: Econometrics, Statistics And Computational Approaches In Food And Health Sciences, chapter 11, pages 153-168, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd..
    19. Iheonu O Chimere & Tochukwu Nwachukwu, 2020. "Macroeconomic determinants of household consumption in selected West African countries," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 40(2), pages 1596-1606.
    20. Klos, Alexander & Rottke, Simon, 2013. "Saving and Consumption When Children Move Out," VfS Annual Conference 2013 (Duesseldorf): Competition Policy and Regulation in a Global Economic Order 79786, Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association.
    21. Christian Johnson & George G Kaufman, 2007. "Un banco, con cualquier otro nombre…," Boletín, CEMLA, vol. 0(4), pages 185-199, Octubre-d.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • H23 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Externalities; Redistributive Effects; Environmental Taxes and Subsidies
    • Q54 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - Climate; Natural Disasters and their Management; Global Warming
    • Q58 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - Environmental Economics: Government Policy

    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:aea:aecrev:v:104:y:2014:i:5:p:563-68. 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: Michael P. Albert (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/aeaaaea.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.