In this paper we demonstrate that even if policies prior to reform have been rational, it is possible, in fact in certain policy areas likely, that a green tax reform, contrary to the perceived wisdom among economists, will be associated with a double-dividend, i.e. with both environmental and...

Policy analysis in applied fields such as agricultural, trade, environmental and development policy is still often undertaken within a first-best, rather than a more realistic second-best framework. The present paper seeks to contribute to changing this state of affairs by providing an intuitive...

The adoption of proper rules of normalisation is in general considered a trivial problem which deserves little attention. Possibly for that very reason errors in normalisation have resulted in flawed interpretations of the conditions for optimal commodity taxation. We state based on an explicit...

Dixit’s 1975 paper "Welfare Effects of Tax and Price Changes" constitutes a seminal contribution to the theory of tax reform analysis within a second-best general equilibrium framework. The present paper clarifies ambiguities with respect to normalisation which have led to misinterpretation of...

The introduction of road pricing has important budgetary and income distributional consequences. In countries like Denmark, due to high marginal rates of taxation, raising government revenue and redistributing income is associated with substantial distortionary and administrative costs. This...

Dixit’s 1975 paper "Welfare Effects of Tax and Price Changes" constitutes a seminal contribution to the theory of tax reform within a second-best general equilibrium framework. The present paper clarifies ambiguities with respect to normalisation which has led to misinterpretation of some of...