能源经济学研讨会

时间：11月28日，星期三， 12:00—13:30

地点：明德主楼621

题目：Environmental Policy in the Presence of an Informal Sector

文章摘要：

We demonstrate how the presence of an untaxed informal sector can sharply lower the cost of environmental and energy tax policy. The mechanism arises from substitution between formal and informal labor supply; we show how energy taxes can draw activity into the formal sector. We present the result in a general analytical framework and then investigate its magnitude in simulation. Our central estimate for the U.S., where the informal sector is relatively small, finds the cost of energy taxes is substantially reduced for abatement up to 20% and negative for abatement up to 6%. Developing countries provide an important extension: they have much larger informal sectors but at the same time include the potential for substitution into informal fuels. We model these countervailing features and show that the welfare enhancing effect typically dominates. The overall cost improvements from energy taxes are even larger than in the U.S.

中国人民大学 经济学院能源经济系