Discussion Papers no. 432

What does it cost?

Avoiding adverse employment effects from energy taxation

Welfare analysis of energy taxes typically shows that systems with uniform rates perform better than differentiated systems. However, most western countries include some exemptions for their energy-intensive export industry, and hence, avoid this potential welfare gain. Böhringer and Rutherford (1997) find that compared to a differentiated system, uniform taxation in combination with a wage subsidy preserve jobs in these industries at a fraction of the potential welfare gain in the German economy. This result holds in this Norwegian study where a more broad based subsidy scheme, represented by production dependent subsidies, is used to protect jobs in the Norwegian energy-intensive industry. However, the welfare cost per job preserved by this subsidy scheme amounts to about 60 percent of the wage cost per job, suggesting that these jobs are expensive to preserve.

Om publikasjonen

Tittel

Avoiding adverse employment effects from energy taxation. What does it cost?

Ansvarlig

Geir Haakon Bjertnæs

Serie og -nummer

Discussion Papers no. 432

Utgiver

Statistics Norway

Emne

Discussion Papers

Antall sider

28

Målform

Engelsk

Om Discussion Papers

Discussion papers comprise research papers intended for international journals and books. A preprint of a Discussion Paper may be longer and more elaborate than a standard journal article as it may include intermediate calculations, background material etc.

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