Efficiency of environmental taxes , control of externalities , regression discontinuity design
Abstract:
Germany taxes electricity use since 1999. The government granted reduced rates
to energy intensive firms in the industrial sector for addressing potentially adverse
effects on firms' competitiveness. Firms that use more electricity than certain thresholds
established by legislation, pay reduced marginal tax rates. As a consequence,
the marginal tax rate is a deterministic and discontinuous function of electricity
use. We identify and estimate the causal effects of these reduced marginal tax rates
on the economic performance of firms using a regression discontinuity design. Our
econometric analysis relies on official micro-data at the plant and firm level collected
by the German Federal Statistical Office that cover the whole manufacturing
sector. We do not find any systematic, statistically significant effects of the electricity
tax on firms' turnover, exports, value added, investment and employment.
The results suggest that eliminating the reduced marginal electricity tax rates could
increase revenues for the government without adversely affecting firms' economic
performance.
Das Dokument wird vom Publikationsserver der Universitätsbibliothek Mannheim bereitgestellt.
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