Beyond political divides: Analyzing public opinion on carbon taxation in Switzerland

Laurent Ott, Mehdi Farsi and Sylvain Weber ()

No 20-11, IRENE Working Papers from IRENE Institute of Economic Research

Abstract: This paper investigates public opinion on the Swiss CO2 levy and its 2020 revision by using a discrete choice experiment answered by a sample of 586 respondents living in Switzerland. The experiment is designed to elicit citizen preferences among various taxation attributes and is followed by a referendum voting experiment on various CO2 levy proposals. Based on latent class modeling approaches, we find that the population is composed by two distinct but relatively preference profiles: Environmentalists and Neutrals. Respondents belonging to the first group tend to favor higher carbon tax rates and a redistribution of proceeds benefiting low-income individuals, whereas those in the second group prefer lower rates and a uniform redistribution of proceeds across all taxpayers. Findings from the voting experiment point to a general support among the Environmentalists, but an uncertain approval from the Neutral group.

Keywords: Carbon tax; preference heterogeneity; public opinion; latent class; discrete choice experiment. (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C25 D72 D78 H23 Q48 Q54 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 29 pages.
Date: 2020-11
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cdm, nep-dcm, nep-ene, nep-env, nep-eur, nep-exp and nep-pol
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https://www5.unine.ch/RePEc/ftp/irn/pdfs/WP20-11.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
Chapter: Beyond political divides: analyzing public opinion on carbon taxation in Switzerland (2021)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:irn:wpaper:20-11

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