On the Economics of a Carbon Tax for the United States

By Gilbert E. Metcalf. Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, 2019

164 citations recorded by the source corpus.

ABSTRACT:Climate change is driven by the buildup of greenhouse gases (GHGs) in the atmosphere, which is predominantly the result of the world's consumption of fossil fuels. GHGs are a global pollution externality for which a global solution is required. I describe the role a domestic carbon tax could play in reducing U.S. emissions and compare and contrast alternative approaches to reducing our GHG pollution. Carbon taxes have been implemented in 23 jurisdictions around the world. I provide evidence on emission reductions and the economic impact of British Columbia's carbon tax, a broad-based carbon assessment that has been in effect for over a decade. I also provide an analysis of carbon taxes used in the countries that belong to the European Union.

Subfields: Economics and Econometrics, Renewable Energy, Sustainability and the Environment

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/b13a40876ec84d4823f8856c96ade7b0cbb568f3

Citations in the corpus

• The Macroeconomic Impact of Europe’s Carbon Taxes (2020, unknown): “As discussed in Metcalf (2019), the CCL is not a true carbon tax given its differential taxation of fossil fuels.”