WELFARE COST OF AN OIL IMPORT FEE
This paper examines the impacts on the US. oil market of a $5-per-barrel tariff on imported crude oil. The analysis shows that the United States currently is a price taker in the world oil market. This means that "optimal tariff" arguments for an oil import fee have no validity. The author also argues that any economic losses that oil supply disruptions generate are better addressed with alternative policy tools. To forecast the effects of the tariff on US. production, the author uses a domestic oil supply model that she developed elsewhere. She calculates the resulting gains in producer surplus and then combines them with an estimate of consumer surplus losses and government revenues so as to yield an estimate of the tariff's welfare cost. This welfare cost amounts to approximately $17 billion (in present-value terms) over the 1988-1998 period. Copyright 1990 Western Economic Association International.
Year of publication: |
1990
|
---|---|
Authors: | WALLS, MARGARET A. |
Published in: |
Contemporary Economic Policy. - Western Economic Association International - WEAI, ISSN 1074-3529. - Vol. 8.1990, 2, p. 176-189
|
Publisher: |
Western Economic Association International - WEAI |
Saved in:
freely available
Saved in favorites
Similar items by person
-
Walls, Margaret A., (1988)
-
Optimal policies for solid waste disposal : taxes, subsidies and standards
Palmer, Karen L., (1996)
-
Zoning, TDRs and the density of development
McConnell, Virginia, (2006)
- More ...