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Jobs and climate policy: Evidence from British Columbia's revenue-neutral carbon tax

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  • Yamazaki, Akio

Abstract

This paper examines the employment impact of British Columbia's revenue-neutral carbon tax implemented in 2008. While all industries appear to benefit from the redistributed tax revenues, the most carbon-intensive and trade-sensitive industries see employment fall with the tax, while clean service industries see employment rise. By aggregating across industries I find the BC carbon tax generated, on average, a small but statistically significant 0.74 percent annual increases in employment over the 2007–2013 period. This paper provides initial evidence showing how a revenue-neutral carbon tax may not adversely affect employment.

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  • Yamazaki, Akio, 2017. "Jobs and climate policy: Evidence from British Columbia's revenue-neutral carbon tax," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 83(C), pages 197-216.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jeeman:v:83:y:2017:i:c:p:197-216
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jeem.2017.03.003
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Environmental regulation; Carbon tax; Employment; Unilateral climate policy;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • E24 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Consumption, Saving, Production, Employment, and Investment - - - Employment; Unemployment; Wages; Intergenerational Income Distribution; Aggregate Human Capital; Aggregate Labor Productivity
    • H23 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Externalities; Redistributive Effects; Environmental Taxes and Subsidies
    • J2 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor
    • Q5 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics

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