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on Environmental Economics |
| By: | Alberto Gago; Xavier Labandeira; Fidel Picos; Miguel Rodríguez (Universidade de Vigo) |
| Abstract: | In this chapter we describe and assess the Spanish experience with environmental taxes in the last several decades, and formulate several suggestions for future developments in this area of tax reform. We first deal with the theoretical and policy contexts for environmental taxes and the so-called green tax reforms, to proceed with an enumeration of actions by the different levels of government in Spain . We show how the central and local governments' stand has not been favorable to the use of these tax instruments due to political beliefs and legal constraints, which have led to a poor energy and environmental performance in comparative European terms. At the same time, the lack of interest of central and local governments in such taxes has fostered an intense regional design and implementation in this field, mainly on emissions to air and waters. These applications share positive and negative aspects, as they contribute to internalize negative environmental effects, but often do so in an inefficient way with a clear revenue-raising component. We conclude that a serious and comprehensive use of environmental taxes in Spain should take into account optimal jurisdictional allocation and the presence of new regulatory approaches in environmental policies, with a focus on some specific fields such as waste, transport and tourism. |
| Keywords: | Environmental Taxes,Spain,Tax reform. environmental policies |
| Date: | 2006–01–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ays:ispwps:paper0609&r=env |
| By: | Fabio Fiorillo (University of Urbino and Opera); Antonio Palestrini (University of Teramo and Opera); Paolo Polidori (University of Urbino and Opera); Claudio Socci (Università Politecnica delle Marche and Opera) |
| Abstract: | The EU Directive 2000/60/EC, also known as the "Framework directive in the field of water policy", stresses the importance of water in human development processes and states that EU members should coordinate water policies towards a sustainable use of this resource; hence, water has a strategic role both for present and future generations and should be managed using a systemic approach. Sustainable policies for the management of water resources must also foresee the setting up of complex systems for analysis and evaluation which must be able to control and govern the entire water system, taking into account both sustainability and economic impacts of the policies adopted. In our paper, we propose a model which, on the one hand, describes the physical relationships among different economic activities and the natural water cycle , while allowing us, on the other hand, to evaluate the economic impact of water policy sustainability. For doing this, we integrate a material flow account approach in a national accounting scheme (NAMEA). This new framework allows the analyst to consider both the effect of given policies on the water cycle and the constraint produced by the sustainability problem on the economic system. |
| Keywords: | Management of Water Resources; Sustainability; Economic and Environmental Accounting Schemes; Economic Impact Evaluation., |
| Date: | 2006–02–20 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bep:unimip:1021&r=env |
| By: | Guillermo Rudas Lleras |
| Abstract: | Se parte de asumir que, si se cobran tasas por contaminar, cada firma llevará sus vertimientos de aguas servidas hasta un punto en donde el costo marginal por reducirlos sea igual a la tarifa de la tasa. De esta forma el nivel de reducción agregado se obtendrá al menor costo posible, debido a que todas las firmas asumirán los mismos costos marginales de manejo de sus vertimientos. En términos empíricos se estima una función de costos de plantas de tratamiento para una muestra de firmas manufactureras que operan actualmente estas plantas. Con esta función se simulan escenarios para una muestra ampliada de firmas, frente a distintos niveles de tarifas de las tasas. Se estiman así los comportamientos de firmas con costos marginales superiores a la tarifa y de las firmas con costos marginales inferiores a la misma tarifa. El resultado obtenido es que si se cobra la tarifa mínima que fija la norma vigente en Colombia, el impacto sería neutro; ero con la tarifa máxima permitida, se obtendría reducciones netas de alrededor del 50% de los vertimientos actuales. |
| Date: | 2006–07–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:col:001032:002645&r=env |