IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/retrec/v110y2025ics0739885925000253.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Transport emissions, carbon taxes, and modal choice

Author

Listed:
  • Avetisyan, Misak
  • Wilson, Wesley W.

Abstract

Transportation is one of the major sources of anthropogenic emissions. Yet most environmental regulations target production emissions rather than transportation emissions. Within the transport sector, there are considerable differences in emissions intensities across modes. In this paper, we develop and estimate a multinomial logit model of consumer mode choices for non-local travel using the 2017 Household Travel Survey to consider the impacts of carbon taxes on mode choices and emissions. The model is specified as a function of trip cost, travel distance, and a variety of household characteristics. The estimates are then used to calculate the impacts of incremental carbon taxes from none to $150/tCO2 on both modal choices and emissions. We find that there are mode shifts to more fuel-efficient modes along with reductions in emissions as taxes increase. We also find almost linear relationship between carbon prices and abatement of non-local transport emissions with the largest reduction observed under $150/tCO2.

Suggested Citation

  • Avetisyan, Misak & Wilson, Wesley W., 2025. "Transport emissions, carbon taxes, and modal choice," Research in Transportation Economics, Elsevier, vol. 110(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:retrec:v:110:y:2025:i:c:s0739885925000253
    DOI: 10.1016/j.retrec.2025.101542
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0739885925000253
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.retrec.2025.101542?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 search for a different version of it.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Multinomial logit model; Modal choice; Emissions intensity; Transport emissions; Carbon taxation;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • Q53 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - Air Pollution; Water Pollution; Noise; Hazardous Waste; Solid Waste; Recycling
    • Q56 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - Environment and Development; Environment and Trade; Sustainability; Environmental Accounts and Accounting; Environmental Equity; Population Growth
    • Q58 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - Environmental Economics: Government Policy
    • R41 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - Transportation Economics - - - Transportation: Demand, Supply, and Congestion; Travel Time; Safety and Accidents; Transportation Noise

    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:retrec:v:110:y:2025:i:c:s0739885925000253. 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.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using 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/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/620614/description#description .

    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.