Tax Policy, Environmental Concern and Level of Emission Reduction

Xuexian Gao, Haidong Zheng, Yan Zhang and Naser Golsanami
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Xuexian Gao: School of Economics & Management, China University of Petroleum (East China), Qingdao 266580, China
Haidong Zheng: School of Economics & Management, China University of Petroleum (East China), Qingdao 266580, China
Yan Zhang: School of Economics & Management, China University of Petroleum (East China), Qingdao 266580, China
Naser Golsanami: State Key Laboratory of Mining Disaster Prevention and Control, Shandong University of Science and Technology, Qingdao 266590, China

Sustainability, 2019, vol. 11, issue 4, 1-17

Abstract: Regulators often use environmental policy to induce green initiatives by firms. This paper examines the emission-reduction-inducement effect of the environmental tax deduction (ETD) incentive by Stackelberg game models between an environmental regulator and a profit-maximizing monopolistic firm facing emission-dependent demand. Different cases, i.e., with/without considering the regulator’s environmental concerns, were used to investigate the ETD policy effects with a numerical example. This paper shows that the regulator’s tax policy will only affect the emission reduction level, but cannot influence the output, which combined with the firm’s operation factors mainly depends the consumers’ attitude toward green products and price sensitivity. Numerical simulation results showed that for the cases with a moderate level of environmental concern and emission standard, the regulator can set an ETD incentive to motivate the choice of a higher level of emission reduction and simultaneously increase social welfare; otherwise, the increase in environmental quality is at the expense of social welfare. When the market’s environmental consciousness increases, it is easier for the regulator to guide the firm to adopt an ETD solution. Therefore, improving consumers’ awareness of environmental protection is an effective way to promote green investment of firms.

Keywords: tax policy; environmental concern; green investment; pollution reduction (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (10)

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