Ecological Tax Reform (ETR) is featuring high on the policy agenda. The key idea is to shift the tax burden from 'goods', such as productive labour, to 'bads' such as energy use and environmental pollution. Since the 1980s, most OECD countries have installed several environmental taxes and...

Summary In economies with perfect competition, environmental tax rates should be set equal to the equilibrium marginal damage. There are two basic reasons to depart from this first best rule: incomplete competition and the possibility of using environmental policy as a strategic trade instrument...