Search formAdvanced search

In view of the challenges posed by climate change and the increasingly ambitious climate targets around the world, the search for effective climate policy instruments is gaining momentum. Carbon pricing, for example, in the form of a carbon tax, and its effects are therefore attracting increasing attention in academic as well as policy discussions. We review the empirical effects of carbon taxes with regard to several impact dimensions commonly studied in the literature: environmental effectiveness, macroeconomic effects, impacts on competitiveness and innovation, distributional implications, and public acceptance. An increasing body of empirical studies shows that carbon taxes can effectively reduce carbon emissions or at least dampen their growth while not negatively affecting economic growth, employment, and competitiveness. The existing empirical evidence suggests that the distributional impact of carbon taxes depends on the type of energy use and the indicators to capture distributional effects, as well as on household characteristics. Lump-sum transfers are shown to be better suited to mitigate regressive effects for lower incomes, while higher incomes benefit more from a reduction of labour taxes. Public acceptance of carbon taxes can be increased by providing public information, avoiding negative distributional effects, and channelling part of the revenues into "environmental projects".

Discussions about the reform of subsidies with negative climate impacts have been going on for decades in policy and research. Such subsidies counteract climate protection efforts, contradict the polluter-pays principle, and reinforce market distortions and the carbon lock-in. Based on a literature review, the paper summarises the results of a comprehensive bottom-up analysis of direct subsidies and fiscal measures (indirect subsidies) that are granted on the federal level in Austria. The analysis considers energy generation and use, transport, and agriculture and assesses the subsidies' legal foundations and original motivations, the subsidy volumes and identifies the beneficiary groups. The quantification of the subsidies results in a range of 4.1 to 5.7 billion € p.a. In addition, relevant regulatory provisions that have a subsidy character are examined. Considering the environmental effectiveness, economic criteria (like distributional impacts) and potential legal constraints reform suggestions are developed for the support measures.

The paper simulates hourly variations in the sources of, and exposure to, traffic-related PM10 emissions for the city of Vienna, Austria. Using an extended and calibrated MATSim micro-simulation model, we reproduce agent-level mobility patterns for a representative day and track the use of different travel modes and time spent at different location types. Hourly street-level PM10 emissions, mostly caused by cars, are extrapolated for the entire city. Simulations show high exposures during morning and evening travel peaks, especially at work, education, and home locations that also exceed the recommended 50 μg/m³ threshold. Among various socioeconomic status (SES) groups, urban, single, and those living near the city center face above-average exposures, while car users, which cause majority of the emissions, are relatively less exposed. Finally, we show that Shared Autonomous Electric Vehicles (SAEVs) reduce PM10 emissions, but the benefits are not homogeneously distributed across different SES groups.