Welfare Impacts of Alternative Public Policies for Agricultural Pollution Control in an Open Economy: A General Equilibrium Framework

A general equilibrium approach is used to evaluate the welfare impacts of alternative policies for reducing agricultural pollution in an open economy with preexisting distortions caused by income taxes and agricultural subsidies. The policies examined here include the removal of distortionary agricultural subsidies. We find that even though these distortions are small compared to others in the economy, removing them and imposing nitrogen reduction subsidies and/or output taxes can enhance welfare and reduce nitrogen pollution; thereby leading to a substantial double dividend. The relative efficiency of the alternative policies examined here depends on the level of the nitrogen reduction target.     

Interaction between livestock and feeds policies: evidence from Southeast Asia

Consumption of livestock products in Southeast Asia could continue to increase rapidly, as has been the case in Northeast Asia. The extent to which domestic producers may respond to these demand developments will be influenced by government interventions in both livestock product and feeds markets. The paper analyses the net contribution of livestock product and feed price distortions on the effective rate of protection, and whether intervention in the commodity market is augmented or offset by intervention in the feeds market. While policy-induced distortions were found to exist in the livestock sectors of Thailand and Malaysia, especially in beef and dairy production, the contribution of feeds policies to these distortions was minimal. In contrast implicit taxes on feeds were high in Indonesia and the Philippines. In the latter, support on product prices was sufficient to more than offset the tax on feeds so that effective protection remained positive. But in Indonesia both livestock and feeds policies worked to provide disincentives to livestock production. It is concluded that livestock and feeds policies should be formulated with regard to objectives and priorities within both sectors. This could require that greater emphasis be placed on feeds sector assistance policies that do not affect the price of feeds.     

房地产税、地方公共支出对房价影响——全国及区域层面的面板数据分析

研究目的：分析中国房地产税、地方公共支出对房价的影响。研究方法：计量经济模型。研究结果：（1）中国房地产税对房价有抑制作用,而地方公共支出对房价有促进作用,两者对房价的净影响为正;（2）房地产税对房价影响存在显著的区域差异,且各房地产税种对房价影响不尽相同;（3）地方公共支出对房价的影响也存在显著的区域差异,东部地区大于中、西部地区。研究结论：（1）房地产税收和地方公共支出预算相互配套的政策组合能有效调控房地产市场。（2）中国房地产税对房价的调控能力不强,应改革现行的房地产税制,开征物业税。     

Optimal Production Tax and Quota under Time Consistent Trade Policies

This article investigates the policy active importers' incentives and welfare implications of using production and trade policies in a dynamic framework where production decisions occur before consumption decisions. We show that the equilibrium for production taxes and quotas are not equivalent, and that each equilibrium depends on whether the trade policy instruments are tariffs or quotas. Under import quotas, the equilibrium policy is to tax domestic production, whereas under a tariff either a production tax or subsidy may be optimal. We also show that a collective agreement to ban production policies is likely to be welfare-improving in many circumstances.     

Taxing Snack Foods: Manipulating Diet Quality or Financing Information Programs?

This paper investigates consumers' likely response to a proposed tax on snack foods that addresses public health issues generated by rising U.S. obesity rates. We estimate demands for particular snack foods and show they are price inelastic after accounting for quality variation. We calculate impacts of a range of ad valorem taxes on the demand for salty snack food. The impacts on dietary quality are small, and negligible at the lower tax rates. If taxes were earmarked for funding information programs, as several proponents suggest, taxes would generate a revenue stream the public health community could use for nutrition education.     

累退税、土地市场与地权配置

研究目的:在土地市场存在的情况下,分析累退税制度对地权配置的影响。研究方法:历史文献、逻辑推理与案例比较。研究结果:(1)人头税与土地税实际上均与土地挂钩,导致了事实上的土地累退税;(2)明朝的士人优免制度形成了制度上的土地累退税;(3)豪强与权贵具有更强的逃税和避税能力,造成了事实上的土地累退税;(4)中国近年来具有土地规模累进特征的农业补贴制度,对地权配置的影响起到了与土地累退税类似的效果;(5)具有土地累退税特征的财税制度影响了土地市场运作,促进了地权集中,导致了效率和公平双重损失。研究结论:应改革具有土地规模累进特征的财政补贴政策,实现单位面积农业补贴的均等化。     

Agricultural Taxation in Canada: An Overview and Assessment

This paper provides an overview of tax policy issues that arise with the taxation of the Canadian agricultural sector. The scope of the paper encompasses the federal income tax, the goods and services tax (GST), payroll taxes, provincial sales taxes, provincial and municipal property taxes, and excise taxes. The paper focuses primarily on measures that apply only to farmers or, in a few instances, to small business owners. The paper identifies numerous areas where additional in-depth research is required and some of the considerations that should be addressed in such analyses.     

An Empirical Analysis of the Relative Efficiency of Policy Instruments to Reduce Nitrate Water Pollution in the U.S. Southern High Plains

This paper develops a modeling framework for evaluating alternative water quality protection policies. The framework integrates the EPIC-PST crop growth/chemical transport model and a mathematical programming model. The framework is applied to the evaluation of four water quality policies in the southern high plains of the United States:
• restrictions on per-acre nitrogen use,
• taxes on nitrogen use,
• taxes on irrigation water use, and
• incentives to convert conventional irrigation systems to modem irrigation technology. The results indicate that producers would make a variety of adjustments in responding to these policies. Important responses might include reductions in nitrogen and water use, crop substitution, removal of land from crop production and conversion from irrigated to dryland production. These four policies are evaluated based on changes in farm income and social welfare. The irrigation system conversion incentive clearly outperforms other policies from both society's and producers points of view. Producers would prefer nitrogen use restrictions to nitrogen or water use taxes because farm income would be reduced less under the restrictions than under the taxes. Nitrogen use taxes, however, are more desirable than nitrogen use restrictions from society's point of view.     

地区重点企业水污染减排复合政策模拟研究

在水污染排放税和排放权交易市场并行的现实政策情景下,模拟复合政策对地区重点企业的排放权配置结构、产量、利润和社会福利的影响,并探索实现社会福利和企业创新减排利润同时最优的政策区间。研究发现:相比于排放税,企业利润对排放权价格变化更为敏感;企业最优的从市场取得的排放权相对于超排量的比例与利润之间呈倒U形关系;在排放税税率与排放权单价的价差较小,且排放税率略低于排放权价格时,可实现经济与环境的双赢。为了使复合政策的效率最大化,建议减排政策中应避免排放税和排放权同低或同高的情形。     

Determining the economic gains from regulation at the extensive and intensive margins

Among the second-best approaches for the regulation of pollution,little attention has been paid to the distorting effect of intensivemargin policies on the extensive margin. This article shows,within a dynamic framework, that regulation of the intensivemargin has to be complemented by regulation of the extensivemargin. Depending on the elasticity of the pollution functionwith respect to nitrogen use, the appropriate regulation atthe extensive margin is zero, a tax or a subsidy. We show empiricallythat combining a nitrogen tax with land-use taxes is about 18per cent more cost efficient than a nitrogen tax alone and 58per cent more efficient than off-site abatement in the formof groundwater treatment.     

AN EXAMINATION OF THE TAX SUBSIDIES TO THE DAIRY SECTORS IN CANADA,GERMANY NEW ZEALAND AND THE UNITED STATES

Subsidies to agricultural producers through domestic tax and social programme policies are generally not included in producer subsidy equivalent (PSE) measures. This study examines the price induced distortions of domestic tax policy and social programmes on dairy trade between Canada, New Zealand, Germany, and the United States. The degree of tax subsidisation and the price subsidies needed to offset the tax and social programme advantages enjoyed by each country are estimated using a simulation model. Study findings suggest that current German taxation policy provides a substantial subsidy to dairy producers. Canadian and US farmers also have some trade advantages because of tax policy and social programmes.     

Reconsidering royalty and resource rent taxes for Australian mining

It is argued that a comparative assessment of a royalty and a resource rent tax as a special tax on the Australian mining industry should recognise the following: the importance of quasi‐rents earned on investments which shift out the mining supply curve over time, the dominance of nonresidents as buyers and as shareholders, and available data on relative costs for mines with more and less favourable natural resource endowments. Comparable tax rates for the two special taxes to generate similar government revenue are derived. For approximate revenue neutral taxes, the efficiency and distributional effects of the royalty and resource rent tax options are assessed and compared. In terms of efficiency, the superiority of one over the other is ambiguous because of imperfect knowledge about key parameters. In terms of returns to Australia, and in particular the aggregate of transfers from nonresident shareholders and export buyers, both provide similar outcomes.     

秘鲁和巴西矿产资源管理制度研究

秘鲁和巴西都是世界上矿产资源较为富集的国家和南美洲的矿产资源大国,两国的矿产资源和能源资源均实行大部门统一管理,矿业权管理制度较为健全,监管较为严格,并且重视发挥资源税费政策的调节作用,重视矿山环境的保护与治理。我国应借鉴秘鲁和巴西的经验,继续施行矿产资源与能源资源的统一管理,进一步重视矿山环境的生态保护工作,简化我国现行的矿业税费结构,调整探矿权、采矿权使用费标准,改革增值税计征方式,降低矿山企业增值税的税赋水平。     

Assessing economic instruments to steer urban residential sprawl,using a hedonic pricing simulation modelling approach

Over the past centuries, cities have undergone major transformations that led to global urbanization. One of the phenomena emerging from urbanization is urban sprawl, defined as the uncontrolled spread of cities into undeveloped areas. The decrease in housing prices and commuting costs as well as the failure to internalize the real costs associated with natural land, led to households moving-out into the urban fringe – resulting in fragmented, low-density residential development patterns that has multiple negative impacts. Awareness for this problem has fed the need for the implementation of effective policies against urban residential sprawl – a subject that has received considerable attention in literature, albeit little attention has been given to economic incentive instruments. Hence, the objective of this paper is to assess the effectiveness of different economic instruments in steering urban residential sprawl – assessing property taxes, land taxes and public transport subsidies. To this end, the Sustainable Urbanizing Landscape Development (SULD) model is used and adapted, and a case study is provided for the medium-sized City of Aveiro in central Portugal. Results show that a flat property tax and a public transport subsidy for low and middle-income households are the most efficient instruments, leading to a decrease in urban residential area, living space and housing quantity as well as an increase in real estate values. On the other hand, a land tax results in insignificant changes in urban residential development patterns.     

Taxation, life-time uncertainty and non-industrial private forest-owner's decision-making

The nonindustrial private forest (NIPF) owner's consumption and harvesting decisions are investigated under inheritance and capital income taxes using a two-period model. The impact of the forest-owner's age is introduced into the analysis through a parameter of perceived probability of surviving through a future period. This allows us to study the impacts of ageing on consumption and harvesting decisions as well as to see how the impact of taxes changes among different age groups of forest-owners. The results show that current consumption first decreases and then increases when moving from younger to older individuals regardless of whether non-timber assets are more or less heavily taxed through bequests than consumption. In general, we find that tax effects are dependent on the forest-owner's age. Age tends to intensify the increasing effect of the forest bequest tax on harvesting. The same is true with respect to the decreasing effect on harvesting of the inheritance tax imposed on non-forest assets. Furthermore, the forest-owner's age tends to intensify the effect on harvesting of the capital income tax imposed on forest assets, but diminishes the effect on harvesting of the capital income tax imposed on non-forest assets.     

TAXES,INVESTMENT INCENTIVES AND THE COST OF AGRICULTURAL INPUTS

This paper examines the effects of taxes and investment incentives on relative capital/labour costs on farms of different sizes. Income tax relief reduces the cost of purchased non-capital inputs to farmers, while investment incentives reduce the cost of capital items. A framework is developed for calculating the relative magnitudes of these effects and it is shown that capital costs have been reduced relative to labour costs throughout the post-war period in the U.K. and on large farms (paying a higher tax rate) more than on small farms.     

Pesticides,Preference Heterogeneity and Environmental Taxes

In this paper we present results from two choice experiments (CE), designed to take account of the different negative externalities associated with pesticide use in agricultural production. For cereal production, the most probable impact of pesticide use is a reduction in environmental quality. For fruit and vegetable production, the negative externality is on consumer health. Using latent class models we find evidence of the presence of preference heterogeneity in addition to reasonably high willingness to pay (WTP) estimates for a reduction in the use of pesticides for both environmental quality and consumer health. To place our WTP estimates in a policy context we convert them into an equivalent pesticide tax by type of externality. Our tax estimates suggest that pesticide taxes based on the primary externality resulting from a particular mode of agricultural production are a credible policy option that warrants further consideration.     

Alcohol Tax,Price–Quality Proxy and Discounting: A Reason Why Alcohol Taxes May Rebound

The increasing concern about the external costs of alcohol consumption has often led economists and policy‐makers to advocate taxes to internalise the social costs and target consumption. However, in certain markets for alcoholic drinks – particularly wine – price is not only a cost but also an indicator of quality, guiding consumer choice. There is, perhaps, a higher probability of ex post satisfaction with products at higher prices in a market with potential adverse selection. The price–quality proxy interacts with discounts, where the full price of the product before discount (referred to as the External Reference Price in the marketing literature) is used as a quality reference. This study shows that an alcohol tax in the presence of discounting may increase the perceived value of the product, and therefore persuade consumers to prefer the purchase of more expensive wines with the highest discount. As a consequence, consumers could favour products with higher alcohol content – which contradicts the objectives of the policy. Consequently, for an alcohol tax to be effective discounting of alcoholic beverages (in particular, wine) should be regulated to avoid the policy backfiring.     

论取消刚性矿业增值税改征柔性税的必要性

刚性矿业增值税即矿产品销售增值税约占采掘业广义矿业税费的2/3,导致经济开采边际工业指标上升。现行矿业增值税的副效应是既不能合理利用矿产资源,又不能激励矿业健康投资,还不能有效维护矿产资源所有者经济权益。矿业增值税变成矿业税费金改革的拦路虎,必须尽快取消并改征柔性税(费/金)。文章着重从六个方面对取消刚性的矿业增值税改征其它柔性矿业税(费/金)的必要性进行了论述。     

NORTH AMERICAN MALTING BARLEY TRADE Differences in Quality and Marketing Costs

Differences between U.S. and Canadian marketing policies in malting barley have been identified as potential sources of trade distortions. Most important are issues related to quality control, yield differentials between feed and malting varieties, and differences in handling costs. This study analyzes effects of changes in selected marketing policies on trade flows and prices in the North American malting barley sector using a mathematical programming model. Simulation results illustrate impacts of relaxed variety release requirements, increased selection rates for malting barley, reduced Canadian handling costs and the effect of increased Canadian exports of malting barley to offshore markets. The results quantify effects of these strategic issues on both the United States and Canadian barley sectors.