TY - JOUR
T1 - Can taxes on cars and on gasoline mimic an unavailable tax on emissions?
AU - Fullerton, Don
AU - West, Sarah E.
N1 - Funding Information:
1Correspondence can be addressed to either author at the addresses above, or by e-mail to [email protected] or to [email protected]. We are grateful for helpful comments from Winston Harrington, Robert Innes, Raymond Robertson, Dan Slesnick, Kenneth Small, Margaret Walls, Pete Wilcoxen, Paul Wilson, Ann Wolverton, and anonymous referees. In addition, we thank the Public Policy Institute of California (PPIC) for funding this research. This paper is part of NBER’s research program in Public Economics. Any opinions expressed are those of the authors and not those of the PPIC or the National Bureau of Economic Research.
PY - 2002/1
Y1 - 2002/1
N2 - An emissions tax is efficient, but measurement of every car's emissions would be inaccurate and expensive. With identical consumers, we demonstrate the same efficiency for: an emissions tax; a gas tax that depends on fuel type, engine size, and pollution control equipment (PCE); a vehicle tax that depends on mileage; or a combination of uniform tax rates on gasoline and engine size with a subsidy to PCE. With heterogeneous consumers, efficiency can be obtained by a vehicle-specific gas tax or mileage-specific vehicle tax, but not by flat rates. We characterize second-best uniform tax rates on gasoline and on car characteristics.
AB - An emissions tax is efficient, but measurement of every car's emissions would be inaccurate and expensive. With identical consumers, we demonstrate the same efficiency for: an emissions tax; a gas tax that depends on fuel type, engine size, and pollution control equipment (PCE); a vehicle tax that depends on mileage; or a combination of uniform tax rates on gasoline and engine size with a subsidy to PCE. With heterogeneous consumers, efficiency can be obtained by a vehicle-specific gas tax or mileage-specific vehicle tax, but not by flat rates. We characterize second-best uniform tax rates on gasoline and on car characteristics.
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U2 - 10.1006/jeem.2000.1169
DO - 10.1006/jeem.2000.1169
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:0036361404
SN - 0095-0696
VL - 43
SP - 135
EP - 157
JO - Journal of Environmental Economics and Management
JF - Journal of Environmental Economics and Management
IS - 1
ER -