IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/ses/arsjes/2014-i-1.html

Environmental Tax Reforms in Switzerland: A Computable General Equilibrium Impact Analysis

Author

Listed:
  • Christoph Böhringer
  • André Müller

Abstract

The Swiss energy strategy until 2050 envisages ambitious CO2 emission reduction targets along with substantial cutbacks in electricity consumption to establish a low-carbon economy without nuclear energy. Our computable general equilibrium analysis finds that compliance with stringent CO2 constraints requires high CO2 taxes on economic activities which are not eligible for international emissions trading; likewise, electricity consumers are burdened with substantial electricity taxes. Environmental tax reforms are not likely to generate welfare gains without accounting for the benefits of improved environmental quality. However, economic adjustment costs to a low carbon economy without nuclear energy remain modest and can be markedly reduced through revenue-neutral cuts of initial distortionary taxes. On the other hand, alternative recycling strategies pose a trade-off between efficiency and distributional justice which has to be resolved on normative grounds.

Suggested Citation

  • Christoph Böhringer & André Müller, 2014. "Environmental Tax Reforms in Switzerland: A Computable General Equilibrium Impact Analysis," Swiss Journal of Economics and Statistics (SJES), Swiss Society of Economics and Statistics (SSES), vol. 150(I), pages 1-21, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:ses:arsjes:2014-i-1
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sjes.ch/papers/2014-I-1.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Lawrence Goulder, 1995. "Environmental taxation and the double dividend: A reader's guide," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 2(2), pages 157-183, August.
    2. Michiel Evers & Ruud Mooij & Daniel Vuuren, 2008. "The Wage Elasticity of Labour Supply: A Synthesis of Empirical Estimates," De Economist, Springer, vol. 156(1), pages 25-43, March.
    3. Welsch, Heinz, 2008. "Armington elasticities for energy policy modeling: Evidence from four European countries," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 30(5), pages 2252-2264, September.
    4. Gerfin, Michael, 1993. "A Simultaneous Discrete Choice Model of Labor Supply and Wages for Married Women in Switzerland," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 18(2), pages 337-356.
    5. Bohringer, Christoph & Rutherford, Thomas F., 2008. "Combining bottom-up and top-down," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 30(2), pages 574-596, March.
    6. Pearce, David W, 1991. "The Role of Carbon Taxes in Adjusting to Global Warming," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 101(407), pages 938-948, July.
    7. Mika Saito, 2004. "Armington elasticities in intermediate inputs trade: a problem in using multilateral trade data," Canadian Journal of Economics/Revue canadienne d'économique, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 37(4), pages 1097-1117, November.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Florian Landis, 2025. "Consumption-based responsibility for global warming and the distribution of impacts of swiss climate policy," Swiss Journal of Economics and Statistics, Springer;Swiss Society of Economics and Statistics, vol. 161(1), pages 1-23, December.
    2. Orecchia,Carlo & Cala,Valerio Ferdinando & de Cristofaroa,Fabiana & Dudu,Hasan, 2023. "Assessing the Efficiency and Fairness of the Fit for 55 Package toward Net Zero Emissions under Different Revenue Recycling Schemes for Italy," Policy Research Working Paper Series 10592, The World Bank.
    3. Babonneau, Frédéric & Thalmann, Philippe & Vielle, Marc, 2015. "Defining deep decarbonization pathways for Switzerland: An economic evaluation based on the Computable General Equilibrium Model GEMINI-E3," Conference papers 332637, Purdue University, Center for Global Trade Analysis, Global Trade Analysis Project.
    4. Liu, Yu & Lu, Yingying, 2015. "The Economic impact of different carbon tax revenue recycling schemes in China: A model-based scenario analysis," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 141(C), pages 96-105.

    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. Claudia Kettner-Marx & Daniela Kletzan-Slamanig, 2018. "Carbon Taxes from an Economic Perspective," WIFO Working Papers 554, WIFO.
    2. Morgenstern, Richard D., 1995. "Environmental Taxes: Dead or Alive?," Discussion Papers 10595, Resources for the Future.
    3. Liu, Li-Jing & Yao, Yun-Fei & Liang, Qiao-Mei & Qian, Xiang-Yan & Xu, Chun-Lei & Wei, Si-Yi & Creutzig, Felix & Wei, Yi-Ming, 2021. "Combining economic recovery with climate change mitigation: A global evaluation of financial instruments," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 72(C), pages 438-453.
    4. 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.
    5. Olekseyuk, Zoryana & Schürenberg-Frosch, Hannah, 2016. "Are Armington elasticities different across countries and sectors? A European study," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 55(C), pages 328-342.
    6. Anthony B. Atkinson, 2004. "De nouvelles sources pour le financement du développement – Économie publique mondiale. Une approche en termes de frontière de production," Revue d’économie du développement, De Boeck Université, vol. 12(3), pages 5-27.
    7. Anger, Niels & Böhringer, Christoph & Löschel, Andreas, 2010. "Paying the piper and calling the tune?: A meta-regression analysis of the double-dividend hypothesis," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 69(7), pages 1495-1502, May.
    8. Mireille Chiroleu-Assouline & Mouez Fodha, 2011. "Environmental Tax and the Distribution of Income among Heterogeneous Workers," Annals of Economics and Statistics, GENES, issue 103-104, pages 71-92.
    9. Ditya Agung Nurdianto, 2016. "Economic Impacts of a Carbon Tax in an Integrated ASEAN," EEPSEA Special and Technical Paper tp201604t5, Economy and Environment Program for Southeast Asia (EEPSEA), revised Apr 2016.
    10. Dina Kassab, 2020. "Tax Exemptions of Ethical Products Revisited," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 77(2), pages 423-447, October.
    11. Quentin Perrier & Philippe Quirion, 2016. "La transition énergétique est-elle favorable aux branches à fort contenu en emploi ? Une approche input-output pour la France," Working Papers 2016.09, FAERE - French Association of Environmental and Resource Economists.
    12. : Eduardo L. Giménez (a) & Miguel Rodríguez, "undated". "Pigou’S Dividend Versus Ramsey’S Dividend In The Double Dividend Literature," Working Papers 2-06 Classification-JEL :, Instituto de Estudios Fiscales.
    13. Orlov, Anton & Grethe, Harald & McDonald, Scott, 2013. "Carbon taxation in Russia: Prospects for a double dividend and improved energy efficiency," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 37(C), pages 128-140.
    14. Németh, Gabriella & Szabó, László & Ciscar, Juan-Carlos, 2011. "Estimation of Armington elasticities in a CGE economy-energy-environment model for Europe," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 28(4), pages 1993-1999, July.
    15. Jenny Ligthart & Frederick Van Der Ploeg, 1999. "Environmental Policy, Tax Incidence, and the Cost of Public Funds," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 13(2), pages 187-207, March.
    16. Don Fullerton & Gilbert E. Metcalf, 2002. "Environmental Controls, Scarcity Rents, and Pre-existing Distortions," Chapters, in: Lawrence H. Goulder (ed.), Environmental Policy Making in Economies with Prior Tax Distortions, chapter 26, pages 504-522, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    17. Bovenberg, A. Lans & Goulder, Lawrence H., 1997. "Costs of Environmentally Motivated Taxes in the Presence of Other Taxes: General Equilibrium Analyses," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association;National Tax Journal, vol. 50(1), pages 59-88, March.
    18. Markandya, Anil & González-Eguino, Mikel & Escapa, Marta, 2013. "From shadow to green: Linking environmental fiscal reforms and the informal economy," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 40(S1), pages 108-118.
    19. Coxhead, Ian, 2000. "Tax Reform and the Environment in Developing Economies: Is a Double Dividend Possible," Staff Paper Series 431, University of Wisconsin, Agricultural and Applied Economics.
    20. Hoel, Michael, 2008. "Environmental Taxes in an Economy with Distorting Taxes and a Heterogeneous Population," Memorandum 04/2008, Oslo University, Department of Economics.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;

    JEL classification:

    • H21 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Efficiency; Optimal Taxation
    • D58 - Microeconomics - - General Equilibrium and Disequilibrium - - - Computable and Other Applied General Equilibrium Models
    • Q48 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Energy - - - 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:ses:arsjes:2014-i-1. 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: Kurt Schmidheiny (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/sgvssea.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.