Local air pollution and global climate change taxes: a distributional analysis for the case of Spain

Xaquin García-Muros, Mercedes Burguillo, Mikel González-Eguino and Desiderio Romero-Jordán

Journal of Environmental Planning and Management, 2017, vol. 60, issue 3, 419-436

Abstract: Global climate change measures are difficult to implement. In this context, local air pollution measures may play an important role in the political agenda since their effects are felt more immediately by citizens. Distributional implications are one of the main barriers for implementing environmental policies. This paper explores the distributional implications of air pollution taxes and compares them to climate change taxes. For the comparison, both tax schemes were set to yield the same revenue. Methodologically, the study uses a top–down approach linking a macro model to a micro model. We find that taxes on local air pollutants are more regressive than those levied on CO2. This is because the goods implicitly taxed have a greater weight in the consumer basket of low-income groups, even if the tax revenues are recycled. Furthermore, the revenue-neutral recycle scheme increases both taxes efficiency, but, at the same time, can increase regressivity.

Date: 2017
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DOI: 10.1080/09640568.2016.1159951

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