H23 - Taxation and Subsidies: Externalities; Redistributive Effects; Environmental Taxes and SubsidiesNávrat zpět

Currently, nations worldwide are actively promoting various environmental movements to address the ecological crisis. Among these, the most prominent is the Green New Deal (GND). However, during the development of the GND, some scholars have identified that its advancement may lead to more severe environmental problems. Therefore, this study constructs indicators for green economic development and the GND. Utilizing an Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) regression model and a Spatial Durbin Model (SDM) and based on panel data from 30 Chinese provinces spanning 2008 to 2021, it specifically analyzes the impact of the GND on green economic development. The study further examines the spatial effects and externality impacts of the GND. Additionally, green finance is selected as a mediating variable to further explore the relationship between the GND, green finance and green economic development, analyzing the mediating role that green finance plays between them.

The main objective of this study is to analyse the impact of environmental poverty (EP), environmental regulation (ENVR), financial constraints (FNC) and political instability (PIST) on carbon dioxide emissions (abbr. CO₂e), with other variables including international collaboration in green technology development (ICGTD), hybrid electric vehicle technology (HEVT) and gross domestic product per capita (GDPPC). The augmented mean group estimator approach is chosen to gauge the long-term coefficients. The findings indicate that strengthening ENVR in Asian countries can reduce CO₂e effectively, highlighting the importance of policy-driven ecological interventions. In contrast, EP, PIST and FNC might worsen CO₂e, emphasizing the significance of political and economic stability for the region's environmental sustainability. The results also show that an increased ICGTD and HEVT contribute directly to the reduction of CO₂e in Asian countries. Even though economic growth is a sign of development, rising GDPPC in these economies is linked to higher CO₂e, demonstrating that the current association between economic growth and achieving carbon neutrality could be better.

The interaction between socioeconomic disparities and environmental degradation, which is highly pertinent to the issue of climate change, has garnered significant scholarly attention globally. Despite the critical importance of climate change in political economy, research into labour markets and environmental policies remains limited in the current literature. Therefore, the present study discusses the implementation of China's low-carbon city pilot policy (LCCPP) as an exogenous policy shock. Utilizing A-share data from listed companies on the Shanghai and Shenzhen stock exchanges spanning the period 2007-2020, we employ a multiperiod difference-in-differences model to scrutinize the influence and mechanisms of LCCPP on employment. Our study reveals a significant increase in employment levels within pilot cities due to LCCPP. The findings remain stable even after the results are subjected to a battery of robustness tests. Mechanistic analysis suggests that the policy substantially increases employment through the scale effect and factor substitution effect. Heterogeneous results demonstrate the policy's substantial promotion of employment levels in pilot cities across state-owned enterprises, the first and second industrial sectors and low-carbon industry enterprises. These research findings support steering China's economic development towards a low-carbon, environmentally sustainable growth transformation. Furthermore, policymakers should encourage the LCCPP to stimulate employment while addressing socioeconomic disparities and environmental concerns simultaneously in political economy.

The paper shows an econometric approach to environmental taxes, economic growth and go- vernment expenditures in Visegrad Group (VG) countries from 1995 to 2018. The aim of this research is to explore how environmental taxes affect economic growth in Czechia, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia in the observed period. The subject of the research is to identify the relationship between total environmental tax revenues, energy tax revenues, transport tax revenues and economic growth. Also, empirical research includes the relation between environmental taxation and government expenditures to identify the character of their effects and influence on economic growth through government expenditures. The findings of VAR model I manifest that shocks in total environmental tax revenues and energy tax revenues positively and significantly affect the economic growth, whereas transport tax revenues have a negative and significant effect on economic growth. The results of VAR model II show that total environmental tax revenues are significantly positively related to government expenditures, which is not the case with energy tax revenues and transport tax revenues. Furthermore, empirical research finds a bidirectional causality between environmental taxes and economic growth, as well as unidirectional causality between environmental taxes and government expenditures in VG economies.

This article studies the environmental and societal impacts of a polluting monopoly when a society strives for a clean environment. Two scenarios are considered: (1) the government levies an environmental tax to induce investment in emission-reducing technology, and (2) the monopolist engages in environmental corporate social responsibility (CSR). It is shown that taxation has a lower environmental impact, but the monopolist undertakes CSR activities only if the abatement technology is efficient. Social welfare is always higher under CSR; therefore, when the technology is not adequately efficient, the government should implement a second-best environmental tax policy to avoid the worst welfare outcome.

The paper deals with two related topics - a mathematical model of the Gini coefficient, and its application in the taxation theory. However, the mathematical part of the paper should not only be understood as a traditional methodological starting point, but it has also didactic character and correctly describes the properties of the Gini coefficient, pointing to misinterpretation deficiencies found in a number of contemporary works. In the application part of the paper, we study the fulfillment of redistribution function of the tax system in the Czech Republic by using the Musgrave-Thin index coefficient M. Our research implies that the global progressivity of the tax allowance system in the Czech Republic was moderately progressive throughout the analyzed period 2006-2016. The considerable change in the personal income tax structure made in 2008 did not essentially reflect the global tax progressivity. Key words: tax progressivity, Gini coefficient, Lorenz curve, redistribution

In January 2008 the Czech Republic introduced the environmental taxation based on the directive 2003/96/EC, restructuring the Community framework for the taxation of energy products and electricity. Environmental taxes are imposed on electricity, solid fuels and natural gas. This paper discusses impacts of environmental taxation in the Czech Republic in the period after its implementation, particularly impacts on price indexes of energy intensive sectors, structure of energy products consumption in the economy and production of CO2 emissions by sectors ranking among EU ETS. The paper is divided into six parts. The first part is the introduction where both the main target of the paper and four hypotheses for testing are formulated. The theoretical problems which are connected with the impact of taxation and tax incidence are discussed in the second part. The third part describes the ideas and expectations of lawmakers regarding environmental taxation implementation, precisely European Commission, Ministry of Finance and Ministry of the Environment of the Czech Republic. In the fourth part authors describe the methodology and data, provide results of ex-post analysis based on both linear and non-linear correlation analyses. The next part deals with the discussion of the results and the hypotheses testing. The last part, conclusion, focuses on the main ex-post analysis findings and formulates the recommendations.

The article evaluates the distributional impacts of the value added tax changes in the Czech Republic using the Household Budget Survey, a representative sample of approximately 3000 households. It evaluates the impacts on the living standards both for the VAT reform that was actually approved in 2011, as well as for alternative reform proposals that were discussed during 2011 and that also considered a reduction in payroll tax rates. The estimates refl ect the recent empirical fi ndings about the incidence of consumption and payroll taxes. Unifying the VAT at a single tax rate has an almost proportional impact on the households from the 2nd to impact 10th income decile while having a disproportionately larger impact on the poorest decile. A reduction in the payroll tax would have reduced the progressivity of the tax system across the entire income range.

The Czech Republic has introduced new energy taxation in connection with implementation of the directive 2003/96/EC, restructuring the Community framework for the taxation of energy products and electricity. New energy taxes are imposed on electricity, solid fuels and natural gas, with term of initiation on 1st January 2008. This paper discusses impact of new energy taxation on sectors NACE in the Czech Republic, particularly on prices of production. I have created the simple short-term price model for the Czech Republic, which is based on input-output methodology by Leontief. The paper is divided into six parts. The first part is introduction, where are formulated both the main target of the paper and two hypotheses for testing. The theoretical problems, which are connected with the impact of taxation and tax incidence, are discussed in the second part. The third part describes possibilities of analysing and modelling in the area of changes of tax system and tax rates. In the fourth part I describe the methodology and then I am creating the short-term price model for the Czech Republic. The next part consists of the main results, emerged from the price model and the two hypothesis testing, with focus on energy intensive sectors of NACE. The last part, conclusion, summarizes the main results and formulates the possibilities of additional research in energy taxation area.

This paper summarizes recent experience with microsimulation models applied to analyze economic and environmental impacts of transportation scenarios. First, relevant international studies from the European and North American countries are reviewed. Then, the paper introduces a microeconomic model calibrated and simulated for five largest cities in the Czech Republic. This model is the first attempt to apply a microsimulation model in the transport sector in the Czech Republic. Finally, results of simulations of different scenarios are discussed. Model simulations suggest that the increase in the excise tax on fuels is welfare improving. In cities, where operation costs of public transport are significantly subsidized, this tool should be accompanied with a fare increase as well, because of costs of public funds. A decrease in fares is not likely to be welfare improving because of small induced modal split and high requirements of public funds needed to cover such policy.

This paper analyzes the tax penalty on volatile personal income under progressive tax rates. The phenomenon may have an effect on long-term entrepreneurial decisions as well as risky occupational choice. An options-based model is used to estimate the expected effective rate due from tax-payers at different income levels and volatilities under the current Czech legislation. A comparison is made to the system which has been in place until 2005, as well as to the Slovak flat-rate schedule. The model shows that volatile incomes incur a substantial penalty of up to 2 percentage points on the effective rate peaking just below the official income statistics mean. The effect is more pronounced than under the former parameters of the tax code. A severe impact on below-average earners due to the mandatory minimum tax-base regulation has been demonstrated. On the other hand, the Slovak flat tax with a single marginal rate bears virtually no sensitivity to income volatility, with the slight exception of very low incomes.

This paper is focused on the theory of optimal taxation applied to environmental regulation. The first part summarizes the current state of knowledge in this field, especially it concentrates on the so called double dividend hypothesis. The second part of the paper defines the concept of triple dividend in transport, which is modelled in the normative neoclassical framework. Based on econometric estimation, we calibrate a model and empirically investigate this hypothesis on the Czech data.

The paper focuses on selective investment incentives, which are aimed primarily to attract foreign direct investment, in the context of the new EU Member States, namely the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia. We discuss the issue within three closely related dimensions. We point to a potential conflict of interests between host country governments and multinational companies in promoting technology spillovers from foreign direct investment in the host economies. We examine the prisoner dilemma of the host governments in mutual competition for mobile direct investment and a room to achieve multilateral or strengthening regional agreement on investment to reduce a possible wealth reducing content of such policies. Finally, we discuss national context of the investment incentives with regards to the rent-seeking behaviour of various interest groups and contradictory role of the investment promotion agency in the process of decision-making about investment promotion policies. We conclude with brief implications for development policy.