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Refining the Evidence: British Columbia’s Carbon Tax and Household Gasoline Consumption

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  • Chad Lawley
  • Vincent Thivierge

Abstract

The impact of carbon prices on consumer behavior is a central element in current policy debates dealing with mitigation of greenhouse gas emissions. We examine the impact of British Columbia’s carbon tax on private automobile gasoline use.We control for several factors that influenced gasoline demand during our study period, including local public transit improvements and increased cross-border shopping. Our results suggest that a 5 cent per litre carbon tax reduced gasoline consumption by 8%. We find that households residing in Vancouver and other cities responded to the carbon tax, whereas households in small towns and rural areas did not respond. We perform several sensitivity analyses. Even our most conservative lower bound estimate suggests that a 5 cent per litre carbon tax reduced gasoline consumption by 5%.

Suggested Citation

  • Chad Lawley & Vincent Thivierge, 2018. "Refining the Evidence: British Columbia’s Carbon Tax and Household Gasoline Consumption," The Energy Journal, , vol. 39(2), pages 147-172, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:enejou:v:39:y:2018:i:2:p:147-172
    DOI: 10.5547/01956574.39.2.claw
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Rafaty, Ryan & Dolphin, Geoffroy & Pretis, Felix, 2025. "Carbon pricing and the elasticity of CO2 emissions," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 144(C).
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    3. Erbertseder, Thilo & Jacob, Martin & Taubenböck, Hannes & Zerwer, Kira, 2025. "How effective are emission taxes in reducing air pollution? A satellite-based case study for Spain," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 86(C), pages 1037-1063.
    4. repec:hal:cepnwp:hal-05021482 is not listed on IDEAS
    5. Chuang, Shih-Hsien, 2024. "Behavioral optimization of US air travel taxes," Research in Transportation Economics, Elsevier, vol. 105(C).

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