Growth effects of a revenue neutral environmental tax reform

This paper analyses tax policy measures within a two sector endogenously growing economy with elastic labour supply. Pollution is modelled as a side product of physical capital stock used as a primary production factor in the final good sector. The framework allows to analyse consequences of isolated tax changes or of a revenue neutral environmental tax reform for economic growth. Although pollution does not affect directly production processes, it can be shown that a higher pollution tax or a revenue neutral environmental tax reform boosts economic growth, whereas a tax on capital, consumption or labour reduces the long term growth rate of the economy.