IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/ecmode/v155y2026ics0264999325004018.html

Environmentally conscious consumers and voluntary tax agreements: A case of dissonance

Author

Listed:
  • Constantatos, Christos
  • Martis, Apostolos Ioannis

Abstract

We consider voluntary agreements (VAs) in which a firm agrees to an abatement level, expecting mild emissions tax rate in return. VAs are credible if the regulator offers a time-consistent menu relating emissions tax rates to abatement, and the firm chooses its abatement and tax rate from this menu. This VA type can be problematic when consumers are environmentally conscious. As consumers’ social responsibility (SR) increases, the regulator demands a lower tax rate independent of the firm’s abatement efforts: the regulator has little to offer regarding tax-rate reductions even at moderate SR levels. Credible VAs are typically considered superior to mandatory taxation; however, for sufficiently high SR levels, mandatory taxation is superior in terms of environmental protection and welfare.

Suggested Citation

  • Constantatos, Christos & Martis, Apostolos Ioannis, 2026. "Environmentally conscious consumers and voluntary tax agreements: A case of dissonance," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 155(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:ecmode:v:155:y:2026:i:c:s0264999325004018
    DOI: 10.1016/j.econmod.2025.107406
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0264999325004018
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.econmod.2025.107406?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to

    for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Nyborg, Karine & Howarth, Richard B. & Brekke, Kjell Arne, 2006. "Green consumers and public policy: On socially contingent moral motivation," Resource and Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 28(4), pages 351-366, November.
    2. Na Li Dawson & Kathleen Segerson, 2008. "Voluntary Agreements with Industries: Participation Incentives with Industry-Wide Targets," Land Economics, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 84(1), pages 97-114.
    3. Glachant, Matthieu, 2007. "Non-binding voluntary agreements," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 54(1), pages 32-48, July.
    4. Poyago-Theotoky, Joanna & Teerasuwannajak, Khemarat, 2002. "The Timing of Environmental Policy: A Note on the Role of Product Differentiation," Journal of Regulatory Economics, Springer, vol. 21(3), pages 305-316, May.
    5. Poyago-Theotoky, J.A., 2010. "Corrigendum to "The Organization of R&D and Environmental Policy" [J. Econ. Behav. Org. 62 (2007) 63-75]," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 76(2), pages 449-449, November.
    6. Lyon, Thomas P. & Maxwell, John W., 2003. "Self-regulation, taxation and public voluntary environmental agreements," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 87(7-8), pages 1453-1486, August.
    7. Brekke, Kjell Arne & Kverndokk, Snorre & Nyborg, Karine, 2003. "An economic model of moral motivation," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 87(9-10), pages 1967-1983, September.
    8. Anna Alberini & Kathleen Segerson, 2002. "Assessing Voluntary Programs to Improve Environmental Quality," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 22(1), pages 157-184, June.
    9. Ahmed, Rasha & Segerson, Kathleen, 2011. "Collective voluntary agreements to eliminate polluting products," Resource and Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 33(3), pages 572-588, September.
    10. David McEvoy & John Stranlund, 2010. "Costly Enforcement of Voluntary Environmental Agreements," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 47(1), pages 45-63, September.
    11. Christos Constantatos & Christos Pargianas & Eftichios S. Sartzetakis, 2021. "Green consumers and environmental policy," Journal of Public Economic Theory, Association for Public Economic Theory, vol. 23(1), pages 105-140, February.
    12. Segerson, Kathleen & Miceli, Thomas J., 1998. "Voluntary Environmental Agreements: Good or Bad News for Environmental Protection?," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 36(2), pages 109-130, September.
    13. Nyborg, Karine & Rege, Mari, 2003. "Does Public Policy Crowd Out Private Contributions to Public Goods," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 115(3-4), pages 397-418, June.
    14. Espinola-Arredondo, Ana & Stathopoulou, Eleni & Munoz-Garcia, Felix, 2022. "Regulators and environmental groups: better together or apart?," Environment and Development Economics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 27(1), pages 40-66, February.
    15. Emmanuel Petrakis & Anastasios Xepapadeas, "undated". "To Commit or Not to Commit: Environmental Policy In Imperfectly Competitive Markets," Working Papers 0110, University of Crete, Department of Economics.
    16. Yasunori Ouchida & Daisaku Goto, 2022. "Strategic non‐use of the government's precommitment ability for emissions taxation: Environmental R&D formation in a Cournot duopoly," Australian Economic Papers, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 61(1), pages 181-206, March.
    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. Kathleen Segerson, 2013. "Voluntary Approaches to Environmental Protection and Resource Management," Annual Review of Resource Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 5(1), pages 161-180, June.
    2. Rasha Ahmed, 2012. "Promoting energy-efficient products: voluntary or regulatory approaches?," Environmental Economics and Policy Studies, Springer;Society for Environmental Economics and Policy Studies - SEEPS, vol. 14(3), pages 303-321, July.
    3. Rinaldo Brau & Carlo Carraro, 2011. "The design of voluntary agreements in oligopolistic markets," Journal of Regulatory Economics, Springer, vol. 39(2), pages 111-142, April.
    4. Lozano, Javier & Blanco, Ester & Rey-Maquieira, Javier, 2010. "Can ecolabels survive in the long run?: The role of initial conditions," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 69(12), pages 2525-2534, October.
    5. Christian Langpap, 2015. "Voluntary agreements and private enforcement of environmental regulation," Journal of Regulatory Economics, Springer, vol. 47(1), pages 99-116, February.
    6. Takuro Miyamoto, 2016. "Why regulators adopt voluntary programs: a theoretical analysis of voluntary pollutant reduction programs," Environmental Economics and Policy Studies, Springer;Society for Environmental Economics and Policy Studies - SEEPS, vol. 18(4), pages 599-623, October.
    7. Tianli,, 2024. "Endogenous choice of corporate social responsibility and emissions tax: What impact do green consumers have on economic welfare?," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 96(PA).
    8. McEvoy, David M. & Stranlund, John K., 2007. "Costly Enforcement of Voluntary Environmental Agreements with Industries," Working Paper Series 7382, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, Department of Resource Economics.
    9. Marie-Laure Cabon-Dhersin & Natacha Raffin, 2024. "Cooperation in green R &D and environmental policies: tax or standard," Journal of Regulatory Economics, Springer, vol. 66(2), pages 205-237, December.
    10. R. Brau & Carraro, 2004. "The economic analysis of voluntary approaches to environmental protection. A survey," Working Paper CRENoS 200420, Centre for North South Economic Research, University of Cagliari and Sassari, Sardinia.
    11. Ryo Ishida & Takuro Miyamoto, 2014. "Does an Optimal Voluntary Approach Flexibly and Efficiently Control Emissions from Heterogeneous Firms?," Discussion papers ron257, Policy Research Institute, Ministry of Finance Japan.
    12. Blanco, Ester & Lozano, Javier & Rey-Maquieira, Javier, 2009. "A dynamic approach to voluntary environmental contributions in tourism," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 69(1), pages 104-114, November.
    13. repec:isu:genstf:201701010800006557 is not listed on IDEAS
    14. Ahmed, Rasha & Segerson, Kathleen, 2011. "Collective voluntary agreements to eliminate polluting products," Resource and Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 33(3), pages 572-588, September.
    15. Kim, Hyunseok & Moschini, GianCarlo, 2021. "Emission Control by Voluntary Agreements: Oligopoly Markets with Green Consumers," 2021 Annual Meeting, August 1-3, Austin, Texas 313870, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    16. David McEvoy & John Stranlund, 2010. "Costly Enforcement of Voluntary Environmental Agreements," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 47(1), pages 45-63, September.
    17. Stahn, Hubert, 2026. "Voluntary management of fisheries under the threat of uncertain legislation," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 239(C).
    18. Thomas P. Lyon & John W. Maxwell, 2012. "Self-Regulation, Negotiated Agreements and Social Welfare," Working Papers 2012-11, Indiana University, Kelley School of Business, Department of Business Economics and Public Policy.
    19. Nyborg, Karine, 2011. "I don't want to hear about it: Rational ignorance among duty-oriented consumers," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 79(3), pages 263-274, August.
    20. Guy Meunier & Ingmar Schumacher, 2020. "The importance of considering optimal government policy when social norms matter for the private provision of public goods," Journal of Public Economic Theory, Association for Public Economic Theory, vol. 22(3), pages 630-655, June.
    21. Marc Daube & David Ulph, 2016. "Moral Behaviour, Altruism and Environmental Policy," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 63(2), pages 505-522, February.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    JEL classification:

    • H21 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Efficiency; Optimal Taxation
    • L12 - Industrial Organization - - Market Structure, Firm Strategy, and Market Performance - - - Monopoly; Monopolization Strategies
    • Q55 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - Environmental Economics: Technological Innovation

    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:eee:ecmode:v:155:y:2026:i:c:s0264999325004018. 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: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/inca/30411 .

    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.