Carbon tax ethics

Optimal carbon tax doubled

Typically, cost–benefit analysis (CBA) has suggested ‘optimal’ carbon tax regimes that result in a global temperature rise of around 3 °C, or even eventually (post-2100) 4 °C, above preindustrial levels. However, risk analysis approaches indicate that these levels of temperature rise result in climate change impacts that pose a high or very high level of risk to society and ecosystems1 (Fig. 1)...

Ethics, organ donation and tax: a proposal.

Five arguments are presented in favour of the proposal that people who opt in as organ donors should receive a tax break. These arguments appeal to welfare, autonomy, fairness, distributive justice and self-ownership, respectively. Eight worries about the proposal are considered in this paper. These objections focus upon no-effect and counter-productiveness, the Titmuss concern about social mea...

Do Ethics Matter? Tax Compliance and Morality

In this paper we argue that puzzle of tax compliance can be explained, at least in part, by recognizing the typically neglected role of ethics in individual behavior; that is, individuals do not always behave as the selfish, rational, self-interested individuals portrayed in the standard neoclassical paradigm, but rather are often motivated by many other factors that have as their main foundati...

A Carbon Tax in China ?

Tax Policy Issues in Designing a Carbon Tax

A carbon tax is a promising tool for discouraging the greenhouse gas emissions that cause climate change. In principle, a well-designed tax could reduce the risk of climate change, minimize the cost of emissions reductions, encourage innovation in low-carbon technologies, and raise new public revenue. But designing a real-world carbon tax poses significant challenges. We analyze those challenge...