مقاله انگلیسی رایگان در مورد وقوع مالیات کربن به تقاضای خانوار – الزویر 2019

Studying the impact of a carbon tax on household demand can be relevant in terms of securing public acceptance of a carbon tax and clarifying the implications for policy design. This paper aims to fill a gap in the academic literature by simulating carbon tax scenarios and estimating distributional effects of the tax on household welfare, income inequality, and poverty rates based on household consumption in Thailand. The study employs a microsimulation model incorporating the economy-wide effects of the tax on prices and consumers’ behavioral responses to changes in prices. The results indicate that a carbon tax is progressive in Thailand under revenue-recycling scenarios by expanding social transfer programs. When carbon tax revenues are recycled through pensions for elderly people, the carbon tax could reduce the poverty rate and improve the welfare of households in the lowest quintile. The results imply that the distributional impacts of environmental taxes could result in favorable outcomes for income inequality and poverty reduction in developing countries.

Introduction

The importance of mitigation policies in resolving energy and climate problem has become obvious around the world over the past few decades. Thailand submitted its intended nationally determined contributions (INDCs) proposal in October 2015, outlining a plan to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 2030. The choice of mitigation mechanisms to achieve climate mitigation targets will impose policy challenges in terms of the policies’ effectiveness and sustainability. The use of market-based mechanisms, such as carbon pricing, has long been a strategy to reduce carbon emissions in developed countries. This approach has been receiving more attention in developing countries in recent years. Following the Paris Agreement in 2015, experts from the International Monetary Fund recommended the use of carbon taxes to fulfill INDC plans in developing economies (Farid et al., 2016). Singapore proposed a plan to impose a carbon tax in 2019, which will be the first national carbon tax introduced in Southeast Asia. Nurdianto and Resosudarmo (2016) recommended implementing a carbon tax in Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) countries as an effective mechanism to reduce carbon emissions and a corrective measure for energy price distortions (e.g., heavy energy subsidies in some ASEAN countries). Energy subsidies can worsen the wealth gap, and poorer people tend to receive fewer subsidies than richer people, for example, in China (Chen, 2017). A carbon tax can be an instrument for policy reform to narrow the wealth gap. Compared to cap-and-trade, which is another carbon pricing mechanism, a carbon tax is easier to implement because it can rely on existing administrative energy tax structures and does not require the establishment of an emission trading market under cap-and-trade, which is nascent in most developing countries.