Download


Abstract

In this paper, we introduce a unified Ramsey model where pollution has an impact on preferences and affects both consumption demand and labor supply. Pollution comes from production activities and is viewed as a stock variable with a strong inertia. A government is introduced and levies a proportional tax on production to finance depollution expenditure. We find two interesting results when pollution raises the consumption demand (compensation effect). First, in the long run, a higher green‐tax rate increases the pollution level at the steady state (green paradox) when pollution raises the labor supply (disenchantment effect). Second, in the short run, local indeterminacy can arise through a Hopf bifurcation when pollution lowers the labor supply (leisure effect) even if pollution has a strong inertia.


Citation

Text
Bosi, Stefano, Desmarchelier, David and Ragot, Lionel, (2019), Pollution effects on preferences: A unified approach, Journal of Public Economic Theory, 21, issue 3, p. 371-399, https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:bla:jpbect:v:21:y:2019:i:3:p:371-399.

BibTex
@ARTICLE{RePEc:bla:jpbect:v:21:y:2019:i:3:p:371-399,
title = {Pollution effects on preferences: A unified approach},
author = {Bosi, Stefano and Desmarchelier, David and Ragot, Lionel},
year = {2019},
journal = {Journal of Public Economic Theory},
volume = {21},
number = {3},
pages = {371-399},
abstract = {In this paper, we introduce a unified Ramsey model where pollution has an impact on preferences and affects both consumption demand and labor supply. Pollution comes from production activities and is viewed as a stock variable with a strong inertia. A government is introduced and levies a proportional tax on production to finance depollution expenditure. We find two interesting results when pollution raises the consumption demand (compensation effect). First, in the long run, a higher green‐tax rate increases the pollution level at the steady state (green paradox) when pollution raises the labor supply (disenchantment effect). Second, in the short run, local indeterminacy can arise through a Hopf bifurcation when pollution lowers the labor supply (leisure effect) even if pollution has a strong inertia.},
url = {https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:bla:jpbect:v:21:y:2019:i:3:p:371-399}
}