IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ags/cuaepw/320702.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Ship-owner Response to Carbon Taxes: Industry and Environmental Implications

Author

Listed:
  • Pierre Cariou
  • Ronald A. Halim
  • Bradley J. Rickard

Abstract

We consider the effects of a maritime bunker levy on ship-owner profits, trade, and emissions. Standard and augmented gravity models are employed using data from 2016 to estimate the impact of a change in transit time and transit cost on grain and soybean trade flows and on vessel speed. Results for a bunker levy of 50 USD/tonne of fuel, or less, stress that it will not trigger a change in the optimal speed of the vessel which is contrary to most theoretical models that predict an increase in fuel costs will always lead to a reduction in speed and carbon emissions. For markets where the shipowners pass the tax on to final consumers, it is also optimal to keep the same speed (and transit time) as long as the tax is equal to, or less than, 100 USD/tonne. Bunker levies exceeding 100 USD/tonne may be needed to reduce carbon when trade flows are sensitive to trade costs and transport time, as may be the case for many agricultural commodities.

Suggested Citation

  • Pierre Cariou & Ronald A. Halim & Bradley J. Rickard, 2022. "Ship-owner Response to Carbon Taxes: Industry and Environmental Implications," Applied Economics and Policy Working Paper Series 320702, Cornell University, Department of Applied Economics and Management.
    • Handle: RePEc:ags:cuaepw:320702
    DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.320702
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/320702/files/Combined%20Paper-Cover%20Page%20Rickard.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.22004/ag.econ.320702?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
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Dominique Bureau & Lionel Fontagné & Katheline Schubert, 2017. "Trade and Climate: Towards Reconciliation," Université Paris1 Panthéon-Sorbonne (Post-Print and Working Papers) hal-01688874, HAL.
    2. David Hummels, 2007. "Transportation Costs and International Trade in the Second Era of Globalization," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 21(3), pages 131-154, Summer.
    3. John C. Beghin & Heidi Schweizer, 2021. "Agricultural Trade Costs," Applied Economic Perspectives and Policy, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 43(2), pages 500-530, June.
    4. Fremstad, Anders & Paul, Mark, 2019. "The Impact of a Carbon Tax on Inequality," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 163(C), pages 88-97.
    5. Simone Bertoli & Michaël Goujon & Olivier Santoni, 2016. "The CERDI-seadistance database," Working Papers halshs-01288748, HAL.
    6. Dirk Heine & Susanne Gäde, 2018. "Unilaterally removing implicit subsidies for maritime fuels," International Economics and Economic Policy, Springer, vol. 15(2), pages 523-545, April.
    7. Roar Adland & Haiying Jia, 2018. "Dynamic speed choice in bulk shipping," Maritime Economics & Logistics, Palgrave Macmillan;International Association of Maritime Economists (IAME), vol. 20(2), pages 253-266, June.
    8. Halim,Ronald Apriliyanto & Smith,Tristan & Englert,Dominik Paul, 2019. "Understanding the Economic Impacts of Greenhouse Gas Mitigation Policies on Shipping : What Is the State of the Art of Current Modeling Approaches ?," Policy Research Working Paper Series 8695, The World Bank.
    9. Dominioni,Goran & Heine,Dirk & Martinez Romera,Beatriz, 2018. "Regional carbon pricing for international maritime transport : challenges and opportunities for global geographical coverage," Policy Research Working Paper Series 8319, The World Bank.
    10. J. M. C. Santos Silva & Silvana Tenreyro, 2006. "The Log of Gravity," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 88(4), pages 641-658, November.
    11. Sommer, Stephan & Mattauch, Linus & Pahle, Michael, 2022. "Supporting carbon taxes: The role of fairness," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 195(C).
    12. Cadarso, María-Ángeles & López, Luis-Antonio & Gómez, Nuria & Tobarra, María-Ángeles, 2010. "CO2 emissions of international freight transport and offshoring: Measurement and allocation," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 69(8), pages 1682-1694, June.
    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. Merkel, Axel & Lindgren, Samuel, 2022. "Effects of fairway dues on the deployment and utilization of vessels: Lessons from a regression discontinuity design," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 126(C), pages 204-214.

    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. Cariou, Pierre & Halim, Ronald A. & Rickard, Bradley J., 2023. "Ship-owner response to carbon taxes: Industry and environmental implications," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 212(C).
    2. Mau, Karsten & Seuren, Rosalie, 2020. "One Belt, One Road, One Way?," Research Memorandum 024, Maastricht University, Graduate School of Business and Economics (GSBE).
    3. Jules Hugot & Camilo Umana Dajud, 2016. "Trade costs and the Suez and Panama Canals," Working Papers 2016-29, CEPII research center.
    4. Anderson, James E. & Vesselovsky, Mykyta & Yotov, Yoto V., 2016. "Gravity with scale effects," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 100(C), pages 174-193.
    5. Do, Quy-Toan & Levchenko, Andrei A. & Raddatz, Claudio, 2016. "Comparative advantage, international trade, and fertility," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 119(C), pages 48-66.
    6. Giulia Brancaccio & Myrto Kalouptsidi & Theodore Papageorgiou, 2023. "The impact of oil prices on world trade," Review of International Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 31(2), pages 444-463, May.
    7. Abdoulaye Seck, 2017. "How Facilitating Trade would Benefit Trade in Sub-Saharan Africa," Journal of African Development, African Finance and Economic Association (AFEA), vol. 19(1), pages 1-26.
    8. Chen, Natalie & Novy, Dennis, 2008. "International Trade Integration: A Disaggregated Approach," CEPR Discussion Papers 7103, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    9. Wessel, Jan, 2019. "Evaluating the transport-mode-specific trade effects of different transport infrastructure types," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 78(C), pages 42-57.
    10. Mario Larch & Pehr-Johan Norbäck & Steffen Sirries & Dieter M. Urban, 2016. "Heterogeneous Firms, Globalisation and the Distance Puzzle," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 39(9), pages 1307-1338, September.
    11. Michele Fratianni & Francesco Marchionne, 2012. "Trade Costs and Economic Development," Economic Geography, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 88(2), pages 137-163, April.
    12. Juyoung Cheong & Do Won Kwak & Kam Ki Tang, 2016. "The distance effects on the intensive and extensive margins of trade over time," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 50(2), pages 253-278, March.
    13. Ahn, Soojung & Steinbach, Sandro, 2022. "COVID-19 Trade Actions and Their Impact on the Agricultural and Food Sector," 2022 Allied Social Sciences Association (ASSA) Annual Meeting (Virtual), January 7-9, 2022 316789, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    14. Hejazi, Mina & Grant, Jason H. & Peterson, Everett, 2016. "Hidden Trade Costs? Maximum Residue Limits and US Exports to Trans-Atlantic and Trans-Pacific Trading Partners," 2016 Annual Meeting, July 31-August 2, Boston, Massachusetts 235847, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    15. Tabellini, Marco & Magistretti, Giacomo, 2020. "Economic Integration and Democracy: An Empirical Investigation," CEPR Discussion Papers 14336, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    16. Simonovska, Ina & Waugh, Michael E., 2014. "The elasticity of trade: Estimates and evidence," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 92(1), pages 34-50.
    17. Dela‐Dem Fiankor & Fabio G. Santeramo, 2023. "Revisiting the impact of per‐unit duties on agricultural export prices," Applied Economic Perspectives and Policy, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 45(3), pages 1472-1492, September.
    18. Dreyer, Heiko, 2014. "Misaligned distance: Why distance can have a positive effect on trade in agricultural," 2014 Annual Meeting, July 27-29, 2014, Minneapolis, Minnesota 170455, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    19. Felix L. Friedt & Wesley W. Wilson, 2020. "Trade, transport costs and trade imbalances: An empirical examination of international markets and backhauls," Canadian Journal of Economics/Revue canadienne d'économique, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 53(2), pages 592-636, May.
    20. Alexander J. Moore, 2018. "Quantifying the Landlocked Trade Penalty using Structural Gravity," Journal of Quantitative Economics, Springer;The Indian Econometric Society (TIES), vol. 16(3), pages 769-786, September.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Environmental Economics and Policy;

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:ags:cuaepw:320702. 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: AgEcon Search (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/dacorus.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.