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Energy Cost Pass-Through in U.S. Manufacturing: Estimates and Implications for Carbon Taxes

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  • Sharat Ganapati
  • Joseph S. Shapiro
  • Reed Walker

Abstract

We study how changes in energy input costs for U.S. manufacturers affect the relative welfare of manufacturing producers and consumers (i.e., incidence). We also develop a methodology to estimate the incidence of input taxes which accounts for incomplete pass-through, imperfect competition, and substitution amongst inputs. For the several industries we study, 70 percent of energy price-driven changes in input costs get passed through to consumers in the short- to medium-run. The share of the welfare cost that consumers bear is 25-75 percent smaller (and the share producers bear is larger) than models featuring complete pass-through and perfect competition would suggest.

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  • Sharat Ganapati & Joseph S. Shapiro & Reed Walker, 2016. "Energy Cost Pass-Through in U.S. Manufacturing: Estimates and Implications for Carbon Taxes," NBER Working Papers 22281, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    • Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:22281
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    3. E. Mark Curtis & Daniel G. Garrett & Eric C. Ohrn & Kevin A. Roberts & Juan Carlos Suárez Serrato, 2021. "Capital Investment and Labor Demand," NBER Working Papers 29485, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    4. Neuhoff, K. & Ritz, R., 2019. "Carbon cost pass-through in industrial sectors," Cambridge Working Papers in Economics 1988, Faculty of Economics, University of Cambridge.
    5. Jonathan T. Hawkins-Pierot & Katherine R. H. Wagner, 2022. "Technology Lock-In and Optimal Carbon Pricing," CESifo Working Paper Series 9762, CESifo.
    6. Erich Muehlegger & Richard L. Sweeney, 2017. "Pass-Through of Own and Rival Cost Shocks: Evidence from the U.S. Fracking Boom," NBER Working Papers 24025, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    7. Martin O'Connell & Kate Smith, 2021. "Optimal sin taxation and market power," IFS Working Papers W21/30, Institute for Fiscal Studies.
    8. Sebastián Fleitas & Gautam Gowrisankaran & Anthony Lo Sasso, 2018. "Reclassification Risk in the Small Group Health Insurance Market," NBER Working Papers 24663, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    9. Elliott, Robert & Sun, Puyang & Zhu, Tong, 2019. "Electricity prices and industry switching: Evidence from Chinese manufacturing firms," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 78(C), pages 567-588.
    10. Li, Pei & Lu, Yi & Wang, Jin, 2020. "The effects of fuel standards on air pollution: Evidence from China," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 146(C).
    11. Adachi, Takanori & Fabinger, Michal, 2022. "Pass-through, welfare, and incidence under imperfect competition," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 211(C).
    12. Zhang, Wei, 2021. "California's Climate Policy and the Dairy Manufacturing Industry: How Does a Federal Milk Marketing Order Matter?," Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics, Western Agricultural Economics Association, vol. 46(3), September.
    13. Catherine Hausman, 2019. "Shock Value: Bill Smoothing and Energy Price Pass‐Through," Journal of Industrial Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 67(2), pages 242-278, June.
    14. Moritz A. Drupp & Ulrike Kornek & Jasper N. Meya & Lutz Sager, 2021. "Inequality and the Environment: The Economics of a Two-Headed Hydra," CESifo Working Paper Series 9447, CESifo.
    15. Lutz Kilian & Xiaoqing Zhou, 2022. "A Broader Perspective on the Inflationary Effects of Energy Price Shocks," Working Papers 2224, Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas.
    16. Souza, Mateus & Ordonez, Pablo J., 2022. "Fuel Switching Under Incomplete Carbon Pricing," 2022 Annual Meeting, July 31-August 2, Anaheim, California 322321, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    17. Hintermann, Beat & Zarkovic, Maja & Di Maria, Corrado & Wagner, Ulrich J., 2020. "The effect of climate policy on productivity and cost pass-through in the German manufacturing sector," Working papers 2020/11, Faculty of Business and Economics - University of Basel.
    18. Felix Montag & Alina Sagimuldina & Monika Schnitzer, 2021. "Does Tax Policy Work When Consumers Have Imperfect Price Information? Theory and Evidence," CESifo Working Paper Series 9138, CESifo.

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    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • H22 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Incidence
    • H23 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Externalities; Redistributive Effects; Environmental Taxes and Subsidies
    • L11 - Industrial Organization - - Market Structure, Firm Strategy, and Market Performance - - - Production, Pricing, and Market Structure; Size Distribution of Firms
    • Q40 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Energy - - - General
    • Q54 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - Climate; Natural Disasters and their Management; Global Warming

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