Nothing Special   »   [go: up one dir, main page]
IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/wly/canjec/v52y2019i3p1165-1194.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Transboundary pollution, tax competition and the efficiency of uncoordinated environmental regulation

Author

Listed:
  • Atsushi Yamagishi
Abstract
Under capital tax competition, surprisingly, Ogawa and Wildasin (2009) find that uncoordinated policymaking leads to a first‐best outcome even in the presence of transboundary pollution. However, I show that if the level of environmental regulation is endogenized, the regulation level becomes too loose compared with the optimum (“race to the bottom”). Thus, despite the efficiency result of Ogawa and Wildasin (2009), efforts to achieve international environmental policy coordination are needed. I then examine the dependence of this result on the level of decisive voter's capital endowment. The regulation is inefficiently loose in many cases, but it can be too strict if the decisive voter's capital endowment is above the average. Thus, the possibility of “race to the top” cannot be eliminated. The inefficiency result does not generally depend on the timing of policymaking, although the efficiency may be restored in the limit case where the decisive voter has no capital at all. Pollution transfrontalière, compétition fiscale et efficacité des politiques environnementales non coordonnées. En matière de compétition fiscale sur le capital, Ogawa et Wildasin (2009) ont découvert de manière surprenante que l'élaboration de politiques non coordonnées génère de meilleurs résultats, même en présence de pollution transfrontalière. Néanmoins, l'auteur montre que si le niveau de réglementation environnementale est endogénéisé, ce dernier devient trop laxiste (« nivellement par le bas ») et s'écarte de l'idéal. Par conséquent, malgré les résultats d'efficacité d'Ogawa et Wildasin (2009), des efforts sont nécessaires pour parvenir à des politiques environnementales coordonnées sur le plan international. L'auteur examine ensuite la dépendance de ce résultat relativement au niveau de dotation en capital de l'électeur décisif. Dans de nombreux cas, la réglementation est inefficace et laxiste mais peut s'avérer trop stricte si la dotation en capital de l'électeur décisif est au‐dessus de la moyenne. Ainsi, la possibilité d'un « nivellement par le haut » ne peut être écartée. Les résultats d'inefficacité ne dépendent généralement pas du calendrier d'élaboration des politiques, bien que l'efficacité peut être restaurée dans le cas restreint où l'électeur décisif ne possède aucun capital.

Suggested Citation

  • Atsushi Yamagishi, 2019. "Transboundary pollution, tax competition and the efficiency of uncoordinated environmental regulation," Canadian Journal of Economics/Revue canadienne d'économique, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 52(3), pages 1165-1194, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:wly:canjec:v:52:y:2019:i:3:p:1165-1194
    DOI: 10.1111/caje.12401
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/caje.12401
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/caje.12401?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Masayoshi Hayashi & Robin Boadway, 2001. "An empirical analysis of intergovernmental tax interaction: the case of business income taxes in Canada," Canadian Journal of Economics, Canadian Economics Association, vol. 34(2), pages 481-503, May.
    2. Fell, Harrison & Kaffine, Daniel T., 2014. "Can decentralized planning really achieve first-best in the presence of environmental spillovers?," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 68(1), pages 46-53.
    3. Thomas Eichner & Marco Runkel, 2012. "Interjurisdictional Spillovers, Decentralized Policymaking, and the Elasticity of Capital Supply," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 102(5), pages 2349-2357, August.
    4. Bucovetsky, S., 1991. "Asymmetric tax competition," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 30(2), pages 167-181, September.
    5. Hikaru Ogawa & David E. Wildasin, 2009. "Think Locally, Act Locally: Spillovers, Spillbacks, and Efficient Decentralized Policymaking," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 99(4), pages 1206-1217, September.
    6. Eichner, Thomas & Runkel, Marco, 2014. "Subsidizing renewable energy under capital mobility," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 117(C), pages 50-59.
    7. Ronald Davies & Helen Naughton, 2014. "Cooperation in environmental policy: a spatial approach," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 21(5), pages 923-954, October.
    8. Hikaru Ogawa & Yasuhiro Sato & Toshiki Tamai, 2016. "Who gains from capital market integration? Tax competition between unionized and non‐unionized countries," Canadian Journal of Economics/Revue canadienne d'économique, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 49(1), pages 76-110, February.
    9. Kim, Jinyoung & Wilson, John Douglas, 1997. "Capital mobility and environmental standards: Racing to the bottom with multiple tax instruments," Japan and the World Economy, Elsevier, vol. 9(4), pages 537-551, December.
    10. Thomas F. Crossley & Cormac O'Dea & Adam Looney & Kevin B. Moore, 2016. "Changes in the Distribution of After‐Tax Wealth in the US: Has Income Tax Policy Increased Wealth Inequality?," Fiscal Studies, Institute for Fiscal Studies, vol. 37, pages 77-104, March.
    11. Böhringer, Christoph & Rivers, Nicholas & Yonezawa, Hidemichi, 2016. "Vertical fiscal externalities and the environment," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 77(C), pages 51-74.
    12. Borck, Rainald, 2003. "Tax competition and the choice of tax structure in a majority voting model," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 54(1), pages 173-180, July.
    13. Levinson, Arik, 1997. "A Note on Environmental Federalism: Interpreting Some Contradictory Results," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 33(3), pages 359-366, July.
    14. Satoshi Kasamatsu & Hikaru Ogawa, 2020. "International capital market and repeated tax competition," Journal of Public Economic Theory, Association for Public Economic Theory, vol. 22(3), pages 751-768, June.
    15. Devereux, Michael P. & Lockwood, Ben & Redoano, Michela, 2008. "Do countries compete over corporate tax rates?," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 92(5-6), pages 1210-1235, June.
    16. Levinson, Arik, 2003. "Environmental Regulatory Competition: A Status Report and Some New Evidence," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association;National Tax Journal, vol. 56(1), pages 91-106, March.
    17. Hikaru Ogawa, 2013. "Further analysis on leadership in tax competition: the role of capital ownership," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 20(3), pages 474-484, June.
    18. Cremer, Helmuth & Gahvari, Firouz, 2004. "Environmental taxation, tax competition, and harmonization," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 55(1), pages 21-45, January.
    19. Glazer, Amihai, 1999. "Local regulation may be excessively stringent," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 29(5), pages 553-558, September.
    20. George R. Zodrow & Peter Mieszkowski, 2019. "Pigou, Tiebout, Property Taxation, and the Underprovision of Local Public Goods," World Scientific Book Chapters, in: George R Zodrow (ed.), TAXATION IN THEORY AND PRACTICE Selected Essays of George R. Zodrow, chapter 17, pages 525-542, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd..
    21. Sigman, Hilary, 2005. "Transboundary spillovers and decentralization of environmental policies," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 50(1), pages 82-101, July.
    22. Hilary Sigman, 2002. "International Spillovers and Water Quality in Rivers: Do Countries Free Ride?," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 92(4), pages 1152-1159, September.
    23. Cees Withagen & Alex Halsema, 2013. "Tax competition leading to strict environmental policy," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 20(3), pages 434-449, June.
    24. Peralta, Susana & van Ypersele, Tanguy, 2005. "Factor endowments and welfare levels in an asymmetric tax competition game," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 57(2), pages 258-274, March.
    25. Hikaru Ogawa & Taiki Susa, 2017. "Majority voting and endogenous timing in tax competition," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 24(3), pages 397-415, June.
    26. Banzhaf, H. Spencer & Chupp, B. Andrew, 2012. "Fiscal federalism and interjurisdictional externalities: New results and an application to US Air pollution," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 96(5), pages 449-464.
    27. Haufler, Andreas & Lülfesmann, Christoph, 2015. "Reforming an asymmetric union: On the virtues of dual tier capital taxation," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 125(C), pages 116-127.
    28. Yu-Bong Lai, 2014. "Asymmetric tax competition in the presence of lobbying," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 21(1), pages 66-86, February.
    29. Wellisch Dietmar, 1995. "Locational Choices of Firms and Decentralized Environmental Policy with Various Instruments," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 37(3), pages 290-310, May.
    30. Kunce, Mitch & Shogren, Jason F., 2005. "On interjurisdictional competition and environmental federalism," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 50(1), pages 212-224, July.
    31. Oates, Wallace E. & Schwab, Robert M., 1988. "Economic competition among jurisdictions: efficiency enhancing or distortion inducing?," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 35(3), pages 333-354, April.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Koichi Fukumura & Atsushi Yamagishi, 2020. "Minimum wage competition," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 27(6), pages 1557-1581, December.
    2. Tian, Yuan & Sun, Chuanwang & Ren, Yi & Liu, Kang & Zuo, Zulin, 2023. "Tax competition, spatial correlation and regional integration development——Evidence from the Yangtze River Delta," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 181(C).
    3. Thierry Madiès & Ornella Tarola & Emmanuelle Taugourdeau, 2022. "Tax haven, pollution haven or both?," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 29(6), pages 1527-1560, December.
    4. Ogawa, Hikaru, 2021. "Partial environmental tax coordination and political delegation," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 110(C).
    5. Cheng, Haitao, 2024. "Domestic versus international emissions trading with capital mobility," Resource and Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 77(C).
    6. Thierry Madiès & Ornella Tarola & Emmanuelle Taugourdeau, 2022. "Do International Environmental Agreements Affect Tax and Environmental Competition among Asymmetric Countries?," Working Papers 2022-21, Center for Research in Economics and Statistics.
    7. Nikos Tsakiris & Panos Hatzipanayotou & Michael S. Michael, 2024. "Strategic capital taxation, tradable emission permits and global pollution," Canadian Journal of Economics/Revue canadienne d'économique, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 57(1), pages 276-296, February.
    8. Deng, Yaling & You, Daming & Wang, Jingjing, 2022. "Research on the nonlinear mechanism underlying the effect of tax competition on green technology innovation - An analysis based on the dynamic spatial Durbin model and the threshold panel model," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 76(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Eichner, Thomas & Pethig, Rüdiger, 2018. "Competition in emissions standards and capital taxes with local pollution," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 68(C), pages 191-203.
    2. James Alm & H. Spencer Banzhaf, 2012. "Designing Economic Instruments For The Environment In A Decentralized Fiscal System," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 26(2), pages 177-202, April.
    3. Nikos Tsakiris & Panos Hatzipanayotou & Michael S. Michael, 2024. "Strategic capital taxation, tradable emission permits and global pollution," Canadian Journal of Economics/Revue canadienne d'économique, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 57(1), pages 276-296, February.
    4. Stephanie Armbruster & Beat Hintermann, 2020. "Decentralization with porous borders: public production in a federation with tax competition and spillovers," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 27(3), pages 606-642, June.
    5. Lai, Yu-Bong, 2019. "Environmental policy competition and heterogeneous capital endowments," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 75(C), pages 107-119.
    6. Fredriksson, Per G. & Wollscheid, Jim R., 2014. "Environmental decentralization and political centralization," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 107(C), pages 402-410.
    7. Eichner, Thomas & Pethig, Rüdiger, 2019. "Strategic pollution control and capital tax competition," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 94(C), pages 27-53.
    8. Fu, Shihe & Viard, V. Brian & Zhang, Peng, 2022. "Trans-boundary air pollution spillovers: Physical transport and economic costs by distance," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 155(C).
    9. Banzhaf, H. Spencer & Chupp, B. Andrew, 2012. "Fiscal federalism and interjurisdictional externalities: New results and an application to US Air pollution," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 96(5), pages 449-464.
    10. Fredriksson, Per G. & Matschke, Xenia & Minier, Jenny, 2010. "Environmental policy in majoritarian systems," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 59(2), pages 177-191, March.
    11. Alexeev, Alexander & Good, David H. & Krutilla, Kerry, 2016. "Environmental taxation and the double dividend in decentralized jurisdictions," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 122(C), pages 90-100.
    12. Satoshi Kasamatsu & Daiki Kishishita, 2021. "Tax competition and political agency problems," Canadian Journal of Economics/Revue canadienne d'économique, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 54(4), pages 1782-1810, November.
    13. Hikaru Ogawa & Taiki Susa, 2017. "Strategic delegation in asymmetric tax competition," Economics and Politics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(3), pages 237-251, November.
    14. Habla, Wolfgang, 2018. "Climate policy under factor mobility: A (differentiated) case for capital taxation," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 92(C), pages 100-124.
    15. Millimet, Daniel L., 2013. "Environmental Federalism: A Survey of the Empirical Literature," IZA Discussion Papers 7831, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    16. van 't Veld, Klaas & Shogren, Jason F., 2012. "Environmental federalism and environmental liability," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 63(1), pages 105-119.
    17. Bert Saveyn, 2006. "Are NIMBY'S commuters?," Working Papers of Department of Economics, Leuven 500306, KU Leuven, Faculty of Economics and Business (FEB), Department of Economics, Leuven.
    18. Bert Saveyn, 2013. "On NIMBY and commuting," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 20(2), pages 293-311, April.
    19. Eichner, Thomas & Pethig, Rüdiger, 2014. "Self-enforcing environmental agreements and capital mobility," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 48(C), pages 120-132.
    20. Xu (Susan) Tang, 2017. "Competition or Coordination: Strategic Environmental Policymaking Across OECD Countries," 2017 Papers pta721, Job Market Papers.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:wly:canjec:v:52:y:2019:i:3:p:1165-1194. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://doi.org/10.1111/(ISSN)1540-5982 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.