Resource Economics Professor Nathan Chan and Professor Susan Stratton Sayre of Smith College have developed a new method to assess the equity implications of carbon taxes, which are among economists' favored solutions to address the looming threat of climate change.
“We hope this study informs future local, state and regional carbon tax initiatives,” Chan adds. “Policymakers should be analyzing the data in advance to figure out whether their proposals will have the intended outcomes and to allay concerns about equity and distributional consequences.”
The complete paper, “Spatial microsimulation of carbon tax incidence: An application to Washington State,” appeared in the July 2024 edition of the Journal of the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists.