Spatial Patterns in Fiscal Impacts of Environmental Taxation in the EU

Abstract

There are several reasons for environmental taxation implementation. Besides its environmental impact, the main reason for such taxation is its fiscal impact, particularly in generating revenues of public budgets. The main goal of this paper is to observe possible spatial patterns in fiscal impacts of environmental taxation in the EU countries, and to depict the groups of countries with the same (or similar) fiscal impact of these instruments on public budget revenues, including environmental and economic characteristics. Two methods of cluster analysis are used, Ward linkage and K-nearest neighbors (spatial) cluster analysis to observe potential geographical links or implication of fiscal impact. The study is performed for the years 2008 and 2017. Based on the results, we can say that in the year 2008, the EU countries were divided into “the west” and “the east”, with some exceptions. The western countries were characterized by high environmental tax revenues, the eastern countries by low environmental tax revenues. For 2017, the situation is different. The border between old and new EU member states is not so abrupt and clear. The results show higher diversification between EU countries concerning the fiscal impacts of environmental taxation.

Alcance de la fiscalidad como herramienta de la Política Ambiental de la Unión Europea

“…La gama de instrumentos incluye, entre otros, impuestos ambientales, tarifas, cargos, permisos negociables, sistemas de depósito-reembolso y subsidios. La UE ha favorecido cada vez más este tipo de instrumentos porque proporcionan medios flexibles y rentables para reforzar el principio de quien contamina paga, además auxilian el alcance de los objetivos de la política medioambiental (Pászto et al, 2020).…”

“…La fiscalidad ambiental es un instrumento jurídico-económico de la política ambiental que hace referencia al conjunto de medidas tributarias que buscan crear un modelo económico más eficiente y, a su vez, proteger el medio ambiente. En ella se incluye tanto figuras impositivas que gravan las actividades perjudiciales al medio como son impuestos ecológicos, tasas, cánones, etc., como incentivos fiscales, tales como reducciones, bonificaciones, deducciones de impuestos ordinarios con el fin de premiar aquellos comportamientos amables con el medio ambiente (Pászto et al, 2020). Por lo tanto, mediante la creación figuras tributarias, los gobiernos han establecido un gravamen a aquellas externalidades que afectan de forma negativa al medioambiente con la intención de proteger y conservar el medio ambiente (Atkinson, 2005).…”

Research on the Effect of an Environmental Protection Tax Policy on Haze Control in China—Empirical Analysis Based on Provincial Panel Data

“…However, the overall environmental tax rate for transportation vehicles is low, or sometimes not. It is recommended that environmental taxes increase the tax rate and increase the collection of traffic pollution [18]. López Pérez et al, (2021) found that since 2014, Mexico has levied environmental taxes in a small range and extremely low carbon emission prices, resulting in less income from environmental taxes.…”