EnviroEconomics.ca » tax shifting http://enviroeconomics.ca/blog ...environmental economics and the implications of environmental policy Tue, 02 Feb 2010 12:23:55 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=4.0.38 If Tax is a four letter word then perhaps a shift in thinking is needed… http://enviroeconomics.ca/blog/?p=37 http://enviroeconomics.ca/blog/?p=37#comments Sun, 23 Dec 2007 14:38:57 +0000 http://enviroeconomics.ca/blog/?p=37 There is a good interview here with Gregory Mankiw, an economist and former chairman of President Bush’s Council of Economic Advisors. What I like about this short interview is the focus on tax shifting and revenue recycling — they are presented as integral to carbon tax design. This definition of a carbon tax also explicitly differentiates the income effect from the price signal on carbon. This quote says it all:

“There’s no question that, politically, tax is a four-letter word. But we have to really convince voters that this is not an overall tax increase; it’s really a tax shift,”

So, when we speak of a carbon tax we are really speaking of a “carbon tax shift”. Bundling this notion of a tax shift with carbon tax seems to be an important and fundamental first step in marketing a carbon tax shift to politicians and their constituents.

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