The consumer burden of a carbon tax on gasoline
Kevin A. Hassett, Aparna Mathur, Gilbert E. Metcalf | Fuel taxes and the poor: The distributional effects of gasoline taxation and their implications for climate policy
December 12, 2011

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This chapter is included in Fuel taxes and the poor: The distributional effects of gasoline taxation and their implications for climate policy, edited by Thomas Sterner, RFF Press

Abstract

This paper measures the incidence of a carbon tax on gasoline using current income and two measures of lifetime income to rank households. Our results suggest that carbon taxes on gasoline are more regressive when annual income is used as a measure of economic welfare than when lifetime income measures are used. In addition we find that the regional variation in the gasoline tax burden is likely to be modest varying by less than one-half of a percentage point with little fluctuation over the years of our analysis. These results carry through when we consider the incidence of the current state gasoline taxes, both across income deciles as well as across regions.

A working paper version is available here.

Kevin A. Hassett is a senior fellow and the director of economic policy studies at AEI. Aparna Mathur is a research fellow at AEI. Gilbert E. Metcalf is a professor of economics at Tufts University and a research associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research.

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About the Author

 

Kevin A.
Hassett
  • Before joining AEI, Mr. Hassett was a senior economist at the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System and an associate professor of economics and finance at the Graduate School of Business of Columbia University, as well as a policy consultant to the Treasury Department during the George H. W. Bush and Clinton administrations. He served as an economic adviser to the George W. Bush 2004 presidential campaign, chief economic adviser to Senator John McCain during the 2000 presidential primaries, senior economic adviser to the McCain 2008 presidential campaign, and economic adviser to the Mitt Romney 2012 presidential campaign.   Mr. Hassett is a columnist for National Review.

  • Phone: 202-862-7157
    Email: khassett@aei.org

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    Name: Emma Bennett
    Phone: 202-862-5862
    Email: emma.bennett@aei.org
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Aparna
Mathur
  • Aparna Mathur is an economist who writes about taxes and wages. She has been a consultant to the World Bank and has taught economics at the University of Maryland. Her work ranges from research on carbon taxes and the impact of state health insurance mandates on small firms to labor market outcomes. Her research on corporate taxation includes the widely discussed coauthored 2006 "Wages and Taxes" paper, which explored the link between corporate taxes and manufacturing wages.
  • Phone: 202-828-6026
    Email: amathur@aei.org

  • Assistant Info

    Name: Daniel Hanson
    Phone: 202-862-5883
    Email: daniel.hanson@aei.org
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