New Horizons in Environmental Economics Series

Green Taxes

Published 27 January 1999

The prospect of simultaneously achieving a 'greener' environment, increased tax revenues and lower levels of unemployment has made ecological taxes an increasingly popular proposition. This volume examines the possibility of ecological tax reform in the Nordic countries of Denmark, Norway and Sweden.

The potential for ecological tax reform is investigated on a theoretical and an empirical level. The social costs associated with environmental taxes are analysed and the impacts of a Swedish carbon tax are calculated by means of a static numerical model. Taxes on carbon, nitrogen and fertilisers are also examined. The authors find that the level of unemployment cannot be decreased by revenue neutral environmental taxes without any social costs and conclude that there are no easy ways to achieve full employment, a budget surplus and environmental sustainability. They conclude that further understanding of the functioning of the labour market, household decisions and the link between change in pollutant emissions and environmental damage is needed in order to make more concrete suggestions concerning ecological tax reforms.

Green Taxes will be of immense use to academics and practitioners in the field of environmental economics.