TY - JOUR
T1 - From gallons to miles
T2 - A disaggregate analysis of automobile travel and externality taxes
AU - Langer, Ashley
AU - Maheshri, Vikram
AU - Winston, Clifford
N1 - Publisher Copyright: © 2017 Elsevier B.V.
PY - 2017/8
Y1 - 2017/8
N2 - Policymakers have prioritized increasing highway revenues as rising fuel economy and a fixed federal gasoline tax have led to highway funding deficits. We use a novel disaggregate sample of motorists to estimate the effect of the price of a vehicle mile traveled on VMT, and we provide the first national assessment of VMT and gasoline taxes that are designed to raise a given amount of revenue. We find that a VMT tax dominates a gasoline tax on efficiency, distributional, and political grounds when policymakers enact independent fuel economy policies and when the VMT tax is differentiated with externalities imposed per mile.
AB - Policymakers have prioritized increasing highway revenues as rising fuel economy and a fixed federal gasoline tax have led to highway funding deficits. We use a novel disaggregate sample of motorists to estimate the effect of the price of a vehicle mile traveled on VMT, and we provide the first national assessment of VMT and gasoline taxes that are designed to raise a given amount of revenue. We find that a VMT tax dominates a gasoline tax on efficiency, distributional, and political grounds when policymakers enact independent fuel economy policies and when the VMT tax is differentiated with externalities imposed per mile.
KW - Driver heterogeneity
KW - Gasoline tax
KW - VMT tax
UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/85020308287
UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/85020308287#tab=citedBy
U2 - 10.1016/j.jpubeco.2017.05.003
DO - 10.1016/j.jpubeco.2017.05.003
M3 - Article
SN - 0047-2727
VL - 152
SP - 34
EP - 46
JO - Journal of Public Economics
JF - Journal of Public Economics
ER -