scholarly journals The Economics and Politics of Carbon Taxes and Regulations: Evidence from Voting on Washington State’s Initiative 732

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (13) ◽  
pp. 3667 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Reed ◽  
Patrick O’Reilly ◽  
Joshua Hall
Keyword(s):  
Fossil Fuels ◽  
Carbon Tax ◽  
Demographic Data ◽  
The United States ◽  
Ordinary Least Squares ◽  
Carbon Taxes ◽  
Climate Change Risk ◽  
Working Families ◽  
Value Net ◽  
Selection Operator

In November 2016, Washington State voters were presented with a ballot initiative (Initiative 732) advancing the first carbon tax on production and use of fossil fuels in the United States. Initiative 732 promised to reduce fossil fuel consumption by taxing carbon emissions, while remaining revenue-neutral by lowering taxes on businesses, consumers, and working families. In promising revenue-neutrality, Initiative 732 sought support beyond environmentalists and similarly sympathetic voters. It failed to pass, achieving 41.2 percent of votes cast. To investigate this initiative’s failure at the ballot, we analyzed zip code-level voting patterns and demographic data. Relying on a two-step LASSO (Least Absolute Shrinkage and Selection Operator) + OLS (Ordinary Least Squares) procedure, our results suggest that the framing of revenue-neutrality did not sufficiently satisfy moderate right-leaning voters regarding perceived costs of the carbon tax. We also found evidence suggesting not only that some voting segments may have opposed revenue-neutrality, but that those facing higher climate change risk did not appear to see the initiative’s value net of expected costs.

Why Carbon Pricing Is Appealing

2018 ◽  
pp. 1-12
Author(s):  
Barry G. Rabe
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Fossil Fuels ◽  
Cost Effective ◽  
Carbon Price ◽  
The United States ◽  
Carbon Taxes ◽  
Excise Taxes ◽  
Effective Manner ◽  
Reduce Emissions ◽  
Direct Tax

The use of taxes to elevate the price of popular commodities in order to reduce consumption and risks related to use did not originate with carbon taxes. Excise taxes on tobacco have been used aggressively by governments in the United States and beyond in recent decades to achieve significant reductions in smoking. Fossil fuel use has long been deemed by diverse economists as a viable target for a sequel, leading to innumerable reports and scholarly arguments making the case for a carbon price. This can take the form of either a direct tax on the carbon content of fossil fuels or a cap-and-trade system that allows for purchase of rights to release emissions at a price. Both are thought to offer effective paths to reduce emissions in a cost-effective manner.

scholarly journals REGIONAL IMPLICATIONS OF NATIONAL CARBON TAXES

2018 ◽  
Vol 09 (01) ◽  
pp. 1840008 ◽  
Author(s):  
MARTIN T. ROSS
Keyword(s):  
Computable General Equilibrium ◽  
Carbon Tax ◽  
The United States ◽  
Computable General Equilibrium Model ◽  
Political Support ◽  
Carbon Taxes ◽  
Household Spending ◽  
Spending Patterns ◽  
Regional Factor ◽  
State Regional

This paper examines impacts of nationally-imposed carbon taxes on different regions of the United States. The goal is to see what can be learned about the drivers of regional political support for and opposition to such measures. Whether at the state, regional or national levels, carbon taxes are one option for reducing greenhouse gas emissions; several state and regional programs are already under way and lowering emissions. This analysis uses a U.S. regional version of the DIEM computable general equilibrium model to explore relationships between carbon taxes, emissions, and economic growth. One area of emphasis is how the distribution of impacts may be affected by differences in regional household spending patterns, the types of industries and electricity generation situated in those regions, and the locations of energy production and energy-intensive manufacturing. The modeling also explores how carbon tax revenues can be used to offset impacts on regional factor earnings.

scholarly journals Going Green with Policy Incentives: Comparing the Use of Subsidies and Taxes to Reduce Transportation Emissions

2020 ◽  
Vol 27 ◽  
Author(s):  
Miranda Hines
Keyword(s):  
Carbon Emissions ◽  
Fossil Fuels ◽  
Energy Use ◽  
Carbon Tax ◽  
The United States ◽  
The Road ◽  
Transportation Sector ◽  
Transportation Emissions ◽  
Policy Challenge ◽  
Reduce Emissions

This article addresses the need for the United States to reduce emissions from the transportation sector. In order to concisely evaluate the political discussion of promoting renewable energy use and discouraging reliance on fossil fuels, this article focuses on the adoption of electric and hybrid vehicles as a means of illustrating the larger policy challenge of how to maximize policy effectiveness at reducing emissions while minimizing economic disruption. The article estimates the magnitude of electric and gas-powered vehicles purchases in response to either a subsidy or a tax and discusses the positive and negative outcomes of each policy approach. The article finds that while a tax on carbon emissions may be most effective in removing gas-powered vehicles from the road, it will disproportionately affect lower-income households. Implementing substantial subsidies for electric vehicles, funded through a smaller tax on carbon emissions, is suggested as a solution to reduce the regressive impacts of a standalone carbon tax.

AN INVESTIGATION OF CARBON TAXES AND TERMS OF TRADE IN A LARGE MACROECONOMETRIC MODEL

2021 ◽  
Vol 258 ◽  
pp. 47-65
Author(s):  
Dawn Holland ◽  
Ian Hurst ◽  
Amit Kara ◽  
Iana Liadze
Keyword(s):  
Global Economy ◽  
Fossil Fuels ◽  
Fossil Fuel ◽  
Econometric Model ◽  
Greenhouse Gas Emission ◽  
Carbon Tax ◽  
Terms Of Trade ◽  
Carbon Taxes ◽  
Gas Emission ◽  
The Government

Carbon taxes are likely to play a key role in meeting greenhouse gas emission targets that are consistent with the Paris Agreement. In this article, we assess the macroeconomic effects of a carbon tax on the global economy, paying particular attention to the terms-of-trade implications for importers and exporters of fossil fuels. We use a modified version of the National Institute’s Global Econometric Model, NiGEM. In the stylized scenarios, all countries and regions impose a permanent and uniform carbon tax immediately. Our simulations show that demand for fossil fuels falls substantially in response to the tax, global (pre-tax) prices of fossil fuels decline, and the tax can raise substantial revenue for the government. The overall impact on GDP growth and inflation in each country depends on the fossil fuel intensity of output, the net losses/gains in terms of trade and the macroeconomic policy reaction.

Global agreement on carbon taxes is unlikely

2015 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Greenhouse Gas Emissions ◽  
Greenhouse Gas ◽  
Fossil Fuels ◽  
Carbon Tax ◽  
Implementation Process ◽  
Carbon Taxes ◽  
Gas Emissions ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Global Agreement

Subject Prospects for the introduction of a global carbon tax. Significance The decline in oil prices offers an opportunity to countries to introduce a carbon tax to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and combat climate change. The UN Climate Change Conference (COP 21), to be held in Paris in November and December, will seek a global agreement to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and set a specific goal to achieve net zero emissions by a certain date. Yet there is little clarity on how this goal could be achieved and whether there will be agreement on setting a price for carbon. Impacts The oil price plunge will continue to divert attention away from the need to reduce reliance on fossil fuels and increase energy efficiency. Without a credible agreement at COP 21, containing climate change disruption will be difficult. For any climate agreement to be credible, its implementation process must be addressed in detail.

scholarly journals Could revenue recycling make effective carbon taxation politically feasible?

2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (9) ◽  
pp. eaax3323 ◽  
Author(s):  
Liam F. Beiser-McGrath ◽  
Thomas Bernauer
Keyword(s):  
Carbon Tax ◽  
Public Support ◽  
The United States ◽  
Policy Instrument ◽  
Industrialized Countries ◽  
Carbon Taxes ◽  
Playing Field ◽  
Revenue Recycling ◽  
Carbon Taxation ◽  
Global Energy Supply

Carbon taxes are widely regarded as a potentially effective and economically efficient policy instrument for decarbonizing the global energy supply and thus limiting global warming. The main obstacle is political feasibility because of opposition from citizens and industry. Earmarking revenues from carbon taxation for spending that benefits citizens (i.e., revenue recycling) might help policy makers escape this political impasse. On the basis of choice experiments with representative samples of citizens in Germany and the United States, we examine whether revenue recycling could mitigate two key obstacles to achieving sufficient public support for carbon taxes: (i) declines in support as taxation levels increase and (ii) concerns over the international economic level playing field. For both countries, we find that revenue recycling could help achieve majority support for carbon tax levels of up to $50 to $70 per metric ton of carbon, but only if industrialized countries join forces and adopt similar carbon taxes.

scholarly journals THE ROLE OF BORDER CARBON ADJUSTMENTS IN A U.S. CARBON TAX

2018 ◽  
Vol 09 (01) ◽  
pp. 1840011 ◽  
Author(s):  
WARWICK J. MCKIBBIN ◽  
ADELE C. MORRIS ◽  
PETER J. WILCOXEN ◽  
WEIFENG LIU
Keyword(s):  
Computable General Equilibrium ◽  
Carbon Tax ◽  
Real Exchange Rates ◽  
The United States ◽  
Computable General Equilibrium Model ◽  
Carbon Taxes ◽  
Carbon Policy ◽  
Lump Sum ◽  
Net Exports ◽  
The Impact

This paper examines carbon tax design options in the United States using an intertemporal computable general equilibrium model of the world economy called G-Cubed. In this paper, we discuss four policy scenarios that explore two overarching issues: (1) the effects of a carbon tax under alternative assumptions about the use of the resulting revenue, and (2) the effects of a system of import charges on carbon-intensive goods (“border carbon adjustments” or BCAs). Consistent with earlier studies, we find that the carbon tax raises considerable revenue and reduces CO2 emissions significantly relative to baseline, no matter how the revenue is used. Gross annual revenue from the carbon tax with lump sum rebating and no BCA begins at $110 billion in 2020 and rises gradually to $170 billion in 2040. By 2040, annual CO2 emissions fall from 5.5 billion metric tons (BMT) under the baseline to 2.4 BMT, a decline of 3.1 BMT, or 57%. Cumulative emissions over 2020 to 2040 fall by 48 BMT. Also consistent with earlier studies, we find that the carbon tax has very small overall impacts on gross domestic product (GDP), wages, employment, and consumption. Different uses of the revenue from the carbon tax result in slightly different levels and compositions of GDP across consumption, investment and net exports. Overall, using carbon tax revenue to reduce the capital income tax rate results in better macroeconomic outcomes than using the revenue for lump sum transfers. Counter to their purported purpose of protecting U.S. trade strength, for a given revenue policy, BCAs tend to produce lower net exports than the carbon taxes alone. This is generally because the BCAs raise the value of the dollar relative to other currencies, thus lowering exports more than they lower imports. This is consistent with standard results in the international trade literature on the effects of import tariffs and export subsidies on real exchange rates, a result that is often overlooked in the discussion of domestic carbon policy. In a finding new to the literature, our results show that BCAs can have strikingly different effects depending on the use of the revenue. Under a lump sum rebate, BCAs exacerbate the impact of the carbon tax by lowering domestic output further than it would fall under the carbon tax alone. Under a capital tax swap, however, BCAs have a moderating effect: they reduce the impact of the tax on most industries.

scholarly journals Multi-model comparison of Swiss decarbonization scenarios

2019 ◽  
Vol 155 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Florian Landis ◽  
Adriana Marcucci ◽  
Sebastian Rausch ◽  
Ramachandran Kannan ◽  
Lucas Bretschger
Keyword(s):  
Emission Reduction ◽  
Fossil Fuels ◽  
Model Comparison ◽  
Carbon Tax ◽  
Emission Trading ◽  
Economic Cost ◽  
Cost Effective ◽  
Carbon Taxes ◽  
Systems Model ◽  
Per Capita

Abstract Collaborating under the Swiss Energy Modeling Platform (SEMP), five modeling teams (employing an energy systems model and four macroeconomic models with a focus on energy) have carried out a multi-model comparison to assess the economic and technological consequences of reaching emission reduction targets for 2050 in the context of Switzerland. We consider different designs of carbon taxes to compare their economic cost: economy-wide or sector-specific carbon taxes with or without an emission trading system (ETS) in place. All models find that the climate targets can be reached at modest welfare reductions of 0.15–0.37% (if targeting 1.5 tonnes of CO 2 per capita) or 0.24–0.48% (if targeting 1.0 tonnes per capita) compared to a business-as-usual scenario in which the emission level of 1.5 tonnes per capita is exceeded by 83–137%. In contradiction to the additional target of reducing Swiss electricity use, most models find it cost-effective to replace some of the energy supplied by fossil fuels by electricity and thus do not recommend a decrease in electricity use.Most models find that a uniform carbon tax is the most efficient instrument to achieve the emission reduction targets. Those models with a detailed representation of pre-existing mineral oil taxes find that in early periods of climate policy, taxing emission from transport fuels at lower rates than other emissions may be cost-efficient. This effect vanishes as the stringency of targets and thus CO 2 taxes increase over time.

Interest Rate, Foreign Exchange Rate, and Stock Market Development in Nigeria

2018 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 247-253 ◽  
Author(s):  
Edward Adedoyin Adebowale ◽  
Akindele Iyiola Akosile
Keyword(s):  
Exchange Rate ◽  
Interest Rate ◽  
Stock Market ◽  
Foreign Exchange ◽  
The United States ◽  
Ordinary Least Squares ◽  
Foreign Exchange Rate ◽  
Market Development ◽  
National Bureau ◽  
Stock Market Development

This research investigated the effect of interest rate and foreign exchange rate on stock market development in Nigeria. This research was centered on two research problems. First, it was whether interest rate had a significant effect on stock market development in Nigeria. Second, it was whether foreign exchange rate had a significant impact on stock market development in Nigeria. The scope of the research covered the period from 1981 to 2017. Data for this period were chosen because it covered pre and post-liberalization periods of Nigerian financial system. This research made use of ex post facto research design. Secondary data were sourced from Nigerian Stock Exchange reports, Central Bank of Nigeria statistical bulletins, and National Bureau of Statistics publications. Data were collected on Stock Market Capitalization (SMC), Prime Lending Rate (PLR) and Real Exchange Rate (RER) (Nigerian Naira in relation to American Dollars of the United States). Data analysis was carried out with Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) and Cochrane-Orcutt Iterative techniques. The findings reveal that interest rate has a significant negative effect, and foreign exchange rate has a significant positive effect on Nigerian stock market development during the period covered. It is suggested that monetary authorities should strive to formulate policies that will make interest and foreign exchange rates stable, competitive, and at a level that will stimulate the investment of funds in the stock market.

Operation of a hyperbaric oxygen therapy center in Korea: Report of our experience from a setting in its nascent stages

2019 ◽  
pp. 135-143
Author(s):  
Yoon Seop Kim ◽  
Yoonsuk Lee ◽  
Sun Ju Kim ◽  
Sung Oh Hwang ◽  
Yong Sung Cha ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Critically Ill ◽  
Hyperbaric Oxygen ◽  
Critically Ill Patients ◽  
Demographic Data ◽  
Developed Countries ◽  
The United States ◽  
Medical Society ◽  
Hyperbaric Medicine ◽  
Therapy Center ◽  
Hbo2 Therapy

Purpose: Hyperbaric medicine is nascent in Korea when compared to other developed countries, such as the United States and Japan. Our facility has been managed by physicians with certifications from the Undersea and Hyperbaric Medical Society (UHMS) and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in diving and clinical diseases since October 2016. This study was conducted to share similar issues that are encountered during the establishment of a program in a new area through our experiences in the operation of a hyperbaric oxygen (HBO2) therapy center. Methods: In this retrospective observational study we collected data on HBO2 patients treated at our center between October 2016 and June 2018 after HBO2 was conducted by HBO2-certified physicians. We then compared demographic data of patients with data from January 2011 to September 2015 – before HBO2 operations were conducted by HBO2-certified physicians. Result: A total of 692 patients received 5,130 treatments. Twelve indicated diseases were treated using HBO2 therapy. Fifty-six critically ill patients with intubation received HBO2. Although two patients experienced seizure due to oxygen toxicity during the study period, certified physicians and inside attendant took immediate corrective action. Conclusion: After the establishment of the HBO2 center operated by physicians with certification, more patients, including critically ill patients, received HBO2 safely for various diseases. In order to improve the practice of hyperbaric medicine in Korea, the Korean Academy of Undersea and Hyperbaric Medicine (KAUHM), an advanced and well-organized academic society, should communicate often with HBO2 centers, with the aim to set Korean education programs at UHMS course levels and increase reimbursement for HBO2 therapy.

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