This paper reveals that the design of the green taxes levied on the production of industrial waste by certain regional governments in Spain does not appear to reduce environmental damage. This may be because these taxes try to mitigate financial shortfalls, tax rates are too low and are fixed arbitrarily, and agents react to tax differentials across regions by disposing of their waste in regions with lower or null tax rates or illegally dumping it. This suggests that the environmental issues related to the disposal of industrial waste should be supervised by the national government or somehow coordinated across regions.

This paper presents an aggregate estimation based on time series data for Spain (1979-1999) of the effects of dependent child tax allowances and social benefits (i.e. income tax allowances for children and social security benefits for each dependent child, one-off birth payments and paid maternity leave) on the decision to have children. This is the first study of its kind to have been carried out in Spain. The majority of these child tax allowances and social benefits are relevant in explaining fertility. Other key factors affecting the decision to have children are the value of women's time and the rate of unemployment. Housing costs and a measure of changes in married couples' disposable income resulting from amendments to personal income tax regulations also appear to have significant effects on the estimation. KEY WORDS: Dependent child tax allowances and social benefits, Spanish personal income tax, Social Security, demand for children, cost of children.