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Pollution versus inequality: tradeoffs for fiscal policy

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 October 2025

Camille Hainnaux*
Affiliation:
University of Helsinki, Helsinki GSE, Helsinki, Finland Université Savoie Mont Blanc, IREGE, Annecy, France
Thomas Seegmuller
Affiliation:
Aix Marseille Univ, CNRS, AMSE, Marseille, France
*
Corresponding author: Camille Hainnaux; Email: camille.hainnaux@univ-smb.fr
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Abstract

This paper investigates the effect of taxation of polluting products and redistribution on pollution, income and welfare inequalities. We consider a two-sector Ramsey model with a green and a polluting good, two types of households and a subsistence level of consumption for the polluting good. The environmental tax is always effective in reducing pollution regardless of the level of subsistence consumption. However, this level, together with the redistribution rate, matters at the individual level as it shapes the impact of the environmental policy on individual consumption and welfare. Looking at the stability properties of the economy, a high subsistence level of polluting consumption leads to instability or indeterminacy of the steady state, while the environmental externality reduces the scope for indeterminacy. Increasing the tax rate and redistributing more to the worker affect the occurrence of indeterminacy and instability. Considering the subsistence level of consumption and the level of redistribution among households are of importance as it determines the effects of environmental tax policy in the long term and the stability of the economy in the short term.

Information

Type
Articles
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BY
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution and reproduction, provided the original article is properly cited.
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2025. Published by Cambridge University Press
Figure 0

Figure 1. Geometrical method.

Figure 1

Figure 2. Local dynamics with $\mu =0$.

Figure 2

Figure 3. Local dynamics with $\eta \gt \overline {\eta }$.

Figure 3

Figure 4. Local dynamics with $\eta \lt \overline {\eta }$.