Bridging the ideological gap? How fairness perceptions mediate the effect of revenue recycling on public support for carbon taxes in the United States, Canada and Germany
2021 (English) In: Review of Policy Research, ISSN 1541-132X, E-ISSN 1541-1338, Vol. 38, no 5, p. 529-554Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]
Carbon taxes are frequently advocated as a means of reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, yet their political feasibility remains a challenge. To enhance their political appeal, carbon tax proponents have proposed revenue recycling as a means of alleviating public concern with this instrument's visible costs. Analyzing data from identical survey-experiments administered in the United States, Canada, and Germany, we examine the extent to which returning revenues to the public has the potential to broaden the political acceptability of carbon taxes across ideological and national contexts. While public opinion is sensitive to the cost attributes of carbon taxes, we find that in some cases, opposition to carbon taxes can be offset by a reduction in income taxes. However, these effects tend to be modest in size, limited to some ideological groups, and varied across countries. Moreover, we demonstrate that fairness perceptions are a crucial mechanism linking revenue recycling to carbon tax support in all countries examined.
Place, publisher, year, edition, pages John Wiley & Sons, 2021. Vol. 38, no 5, p. 529-554
Keywords [en]
carbon tax, fairness, ideology, public opinion, revenue recycling, survey experiment
National Category
Economics
Research subject Political Science
Identifiers URN: urn:nbn:se:ltu:diva-86856 DOI: 10.1111/ropr.12439 ISI: 000685523000001 Scopus ID: 2-s2.0-85112684468 OAI: oai:DiVA.org:ltu-86856 DiVA, id: diva2:1588140
Note Validerad;2021;Nivå 2;2021-09-13 (beamah)
2021-08-262021-08-262023-09-05 Bibliographically approved