Why Tax Energy? Towards a More Rational Policy

David M. Newbery

The Energy Journal, 2005, vol. 26, issue 3, 1-39

Abstract: The same fuels are taxed at widely different rates in different countries while different fuels are taxed at widely different rates within and across countries. This paper considers what tax theory has to say about efficient energy tax design. The main factors for energy taxes are the optimal tariff argument, the need to correct externalities such as global warming, and second-best considerations for taxing transport fuels as road charges, but these are inadequate to explain current energy taxes. EU energy tax harmonisation and Kyoto suggest that the time is ripe to reform energy taxation.

Keywords: Energy taxes; policy; oil; road charges; optimal tariff; externalities; climate change; exhaustible resources (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2005
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.5547/ISSN0195-6574-EJ-Vol26-No3-1 (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:enejou:v:26:y:2005:i:3:p:1-39

DOI: 10.5547/ISSN0195-6574-EJ-Vol26-No3-1

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in The Energy Journal
Bibliographic data for series maintained by SAGE Publications ().