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Pigou in the 21st Century: a tribute on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the publication of The Economics of Welfare
International Tax and Public Finance ( IF 1.289 ) Pub Date : 2021-01-19 , DOI: 10.1007/s10797-020-09653-y
Ottmar Edenhofer 1, 2, 3 , Max Franks 2, 3 , Matthias Kalkuhl 1, 4
Affiliation  

The year 2020 marks the centennial of the publication of Arthur Cecil Pigou’s magnum opus The Economics of Welfare. Pigou’s pricing principles have had an enduring influence on the academic debate, with a widespread consensus having emerged among economists that Pigouvian taxes or subsidies are theoretically desirable, but politically infeasible. In this article, we revisit Pigou’s contribution and argue that this consensus is somewhat spurious, particularly in two ways: (1) Economists are too quick to ignore the theoretical problems and subtleties that Pigouvian pricing still faces; (2) The wholesale skepticism concerning the political viability of Pigouvian pricing is at odds with its recent practical achievements. These two points are made by, first, outlining the theoretical and political challenges that include uncertainty about the social cost of carbon, the unclear relationship between the cost–benefit and cost-effectiveness approaches, distributional concerns, fragmented ministerial responsibilities, an unstable tax base, commitment problems, lack of acceptance and trust between government and citizens as well as incomplete international cooperation. Secondly, we discuss the recent political success of Pigouvian pricing, as evidenced by the German government’s 2019 climate policy reform and the EU’s Green Deal. We conclude by presenting a research agenda for addressing the remaining barriers that need to be overcome to make Pigouvian pricing a common political practice.



中文翻译:

21世纪的庇古:《福利经济学》出版100周年献礼

2020 年是 Arthur Cecil Pigou 的巨著《福利经济学》出版一百周年. 庇古的定价原则对学术辩论产生了持久的影响,经济学家普遍认为庇古的税收或补贴在理论上是可取的,但在政治上是不可行的。在本文中,我们重新审视了庇古的贡献,并认为这种共识有些虚假,特别是在两个方面:(1)经济学家太快忽略了庇古定价仍然面临的理论问题和微妙之处;(2) 对庇古定价的政治可行性的全面怀疑与其最近的实际成就不一致。这两点是通过首先概述理论和政治挑战来提出的,包括碳的社会成本的不确定性、成本效益和成本效益方法之间不明确的关系,分配问题、分散的部长职责、不稳定的税基、承诺问题、政府和公民之间缺乏接受和信任以及国际合作不完整。其次,我们讨论了 Pigouvian 定价最近在政治上取得的成功,德国政府 2019 年的气候政策改革和欧盟的绿色协议就是证明。最后,我们提出了一项研究议程,以解决需要克服的剩余障碍,以使 Pigouvian 定价成为一种常见的政治实践。德国政府 2019 年的气候政策改革和欧盟的绿色协议就是明证。最后,我们提出了一项研究议程,以解决需要克服的剩余障碍,以使 Pigouvian 定价成为一种常见的政治实践。德国政府 2019 年的气候政策改革和欧盟的绿色协议就是明证。最后,我们提出了一项研究议程,以解决需要克服的剩余障碍,以使 Pigouvian 定价成为一种常见的政治实践。

更新日期:2021-01-19
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