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It has been some time that I have not mentioned the virtues of greening the tax system. By that I mean levying taxes on activities that exert negative externalities on others, such as pollution or congestion, while reducing standard taxes such as the income tax and even subsidizing activities that have a positive externality, such as getting educated. Yet, despite that great virtues of greening the tax system, it happens only moderately. Maybe it is because it bears some short-term costs before yielding longer term benefits.
Walid Oueslati confirms this using an endogenous growth model. In the long run, growth and welfare are indeed enhanced by environmental taxes if the proceeds are used to reduce wages taxes (but not capital taxes, a surprise given the optimal capital tax literature). In the short run, however, the impact on both can be negative due to the reallocation of factors during the transition to the new steady state. These disruption are similar to the sort-term costs of freeing up international trade. If you add it some temporary transfers to those who suffer in the transition, all is good and current opponents trying to protect some rents should be willing to go along. So, what are we waiting for?
PS: This must be the worst-looking working paper cover I have seen so far. The abstract is unreadable. Why this choice of colors?
Walid Oueslati confirms this using an endogenous growth model. In the long run, growth and welfare are indeed enhanced by environmental taxes if the proceeds are used to reduce wages taxes (but not capital taxes, a surprise given the optimal capital tax literature). In the short run, however, the impact on both can be negative due to the reallocation of factors during the transition to the new steady state. These disruption are similar to the sort-term costs of freeing up international trade. If you add it some temporary transfers to those who suffer in the transition, all is good and current opponents trying to protect some rents should be willing to go along. So, what are we waiting for?
PS: This must be the worst-looking working paper cover I have seen so far. The abstract is unreadable. Why this choice of colors?
2 comments:
I downloaded this article on my phone first, and wondered what you meant, then downloaded it with my browser pdf viewer and I see what you mean. It must be some technical issue? It seems to look normal for me on my phone.
I found it interesting that the optimal policy was the one that had some of the highest levels of steady-state pollution. It's not surprising, though, since there is more government spending and the substitution toward human capital creates more growth.
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