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Green taxes, blue taxes
Author(s) -
Shaw Christopher L.
Publication year - 1991
Publication title -
natural resources forum
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.646
H-Index - 49
eISSN - 1477-8947
pISSN - 0165-0203
DOI - 10.1111/j.1477-8947.1991.tb00123.x
Subject(s) - externality , legislation , public economics , business , commons , natural resource economics , tax policy , economics , tax reform , microeconomics , political science , law
Central governments are facing increasingly stringent demands to lead the clean‐up of public resources. Historically, governments have chosen legislation and regulation to address these concerns and achieved mixed results, but another tool of public policy holds significant promise and is gaining ground in the policy debate: ‘green’ taxes. The potential of a tax system to mitigate environmental externalities is explored. The theory of pollution tax is reviewed and a comparison of two country cases where taxes have been designed explicitly to reduce industrial effluents and improve the quality of fresh water resources is presented. If structures to approximate social costs are federally mandated and regionally implemented, a comprehensive tax system can constitute an integral part of an effective response to private spoliation of the commons.