Energy Taxation: An Analysis of Selected Taxes

摘要

Taxation is a key instrument by which governments affect economic decision making and outcomes. Not surprisingly, energy taxation has received considerable attention in recent years with the mounting concern over national energy policy. As with other policy instruments, the taxation of energy production and use spans a wide array of topics. It also cuts across other instruments because it affects the entire spectrum of economic variables - prices, outputs, investments, uses, and so on. As a result, the subject of energy taxation constitutes a highly complex set of issues for public policy. This report examines the principal components of that set of issues. In the process, it points out the most-important interrelations among the various taxes and between taxation and other policy instruments. (ERA citation 05:033672)