Germany imposes an energy tax of 0.65€/l on gasoline which is one of the highest tax rates across countries. The effective tax is even higher when accounting for the consumption tax levied on top of the energy tax. Answers to the question whether such a high tax level is justified on...

Gasoline and diesel fuel are heavily taxed in many developed and some emerging and developing countries. Outside of the United States and Europe, however, there has been little attempt to quantify the external costs of vehicle use, so policymakers lack guidance on whether prevailing tax rates...

Fiscal instruments are potentially among the most effective, and cost-effective, options for addressing externalities related to poor air quality, urban road congestion, and greenhouse gases. This paper takes a case study, focused on Mauritius (a pioneer in the use of green taxes) to illustrate...

Im Zeitabschnitt von 1960 bis 1992 entwickelte sich die Mineralölsteuer von der siebt- zur drittstärksten Steuer. Dabei ist Benzin die wichtigste Bemessungsgrundlage zur Besteuerung. Die steuerpolitische Rechnung ging bislang in zweierlei Hinsicht auf. Zum einen wurde trotz Steuererhöhung...

This paper summarizes environmental considerations that the Bank should take into account in preparing its new country strategy with Bolivia (2011-2015). Some of these are already contemplated to a certain extent in the existing strategy. Following this introductory section, which briefly...

This document has been prepared as an input to the Bank's Guyana Country Strategy (2012-2016). Its purpose is to identify key environmental issues in Guyana and provide recommendations for the Bank in terms of investments to anticipate risks related to sensitive sectors, programs, and projects...

The Environment and Safeguards Group (ESG) of the IDB has examined how potential environmental and social risks of major Bank-supported road improvement investments in natural resource rich and socio-culturally diverse "frontier" regions have been identified and addressed in various parts of...

This paper analyzes the distributive incidence of gasoline tax in Chile, using the Fifth and Sixth Family Budget Surveys. Incidence is calculated for income and expense distribution so that the potential differences between temporary and permanent income are taken into account. The Suits Index...