Home | Databases | WorldLII | Search | Feedback Edited Legal Collections Data

Backhaus, Jürgen G. --- "Regulatory Taxation" [2005] ELECD 149; in Backhaus, G. Jürgen (ed), "The Elgar Companion to Law and Economics, Second Edition" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2005)

Book Title: The Elgar Companion to Law and Economics, Second Edition

Editor(s): Backhaus, G. Jürgen

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781845420321

Section: Chapter 25

Section Title: Regulatory Taxation

Author(s): Backhaus, Jürgen G.

Number of pages: 10

Extract:

25 Regulatory taxation
Jürgen G. Backhaus1


Introduction
This entry serves to emphasize the difference between three distinct types
of taxation: classical or traditional taxes serve to generate revenues with a
minimum excess burden or welfare loss; regulatory taxes, on the other
hand, can be of two kinds. Pigouvian taxes are regulatory taxes in the sense
of accomplishing slight changes in individual or firm behaviour; the pro-
duction or consumption functions are assumed as given. The point of
environmental taxation and of designing an environmentally sound tax sys-
tem, on the other hand, is to accomplish deep and structural changes in the
economic and ecological behaviour of individuals, households and firms,
that is, changes of patterns and not changes of degree. When these basic
patterns of behaviour and processes are to be influenced, it is important to
identify those basic aspects that are environmentally and ecologically im-
portant and susceptible to change as a consequence of a tax intervention.
Consequently, one has to identify those instances where basic choices can
be taken and where decision makers face alternatives among which they
can choose.
Generally speaking, environmental taxes of this kind belong to a type of
regulatory taxes that is designed to affect not only choices within structures
and constraints, but also choices about such structures and constraints. Since
Pigouvian taxes, the first type of regulatory taxes, are well documented in the
literature, the emphasis here is on the other type of regulatory taxes which
aim at structural change. Throughout, this ...