This paper discusses techniques for measuring the incidence of carbon taxes across different household income groups and provides some cross-country estimates of these effects for selected advanced countries. The general message of this paper is that distributional concerns should not...

This paper describes a model, implemented in an Excel spreadsheet, for evaluating a wide range of fiscal and regulatory instruments policymakers might consider for implementing their Paris mitigation pledges. Policies are evaluated against a range of metrics, including impacts on carbon dioxide...

This essay reviews the conceptual and quantitative literature on the efficient system of fossil fuel energy prices in different countries for reflecting supply and environmental costs, as well as the environmental, fiscal, and economic benefits from energy price reform. Drawing on recent...

The efficiency case for raising fuel tax minima under the EU Energy Tax Directive (ETD) appears nuanced. Some fuels may be undertaxed (e.g., road diesel, natural gas), while others may be adequately taxed already (e.g., gasoline). Reform proposals would increase some minima, including for road...

This paper estimates fossil fuel subsidies and the economic and environmental benefits from reforming them, focusing mostly on a broad notion of subsidies arising when consumer prices are below supply costs plus environmental costs and general consumption taxes. Subsidies are $4.9 trillion...

This paper calculates, for the top twenty emitting countries, how much pricing of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions is in their own national interests due to domestic co-benefits. On average, nationally efficient prices are substantial, $57.5 per ton of CO2 (for year 2010), reflecting primarily...

This paper first reviews the conceptual case for, and appropriate design of, fiscal policies to address major externalities associated with energy use - global warming, local air pollution, and various side effects (e.g., congestion) from motor vehicles. Techniques for (roughly) estimating the...

The pan-Canadian approach to carbon pricing, announced in October 2016, ensures that carbon pricing applies throughout Canada in 2018, with increasing stringency over time to reduce emissions. Canadian provinces and territories have the flexibility to either implement an explicit price-based...

The efficiency effects of carbon pricing depend on how it impacts distortions in fossil fuel markets, most notably from local air pollution externalities. By offsetting these distortions, carbon pricing may generate significant net economic benefits, so it is in countries own interests to...

Denmark has a highly ambitious goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions 70 percent below 1990 levels by 2030. While there is general agreement that carbon pricing should be the centerpiece of Denmark’s mitigation strategy, pricing needs to be effective, address equity and leakage concerns,...