This paper examines the impact of environmentally related taxes on environmental performance in the EU-15 countries during the period of 1995–2016 by utilizing an innovative non-linear model, which is the panel smooth transition regression (PSTR) model. Although the effectiveness of environmental taxes has been discussed before, the potential effects of these taxes on ecological balance sheets as a measure to reflect human pressures on the environment/ecosystem have not been fully investigated. This paper, therefore, deals with total ecological balance and its main components, which are based on the major types of ecologically productive areas such as cropland, grazing land, forest area, and fishing grounds. The results indicate that revenues from environmentally-related taxes as a share of GDP significantly lower the ecological deficits after exceeding a certain threshold level, but not cropland balance accounts. Thus, well-designed environmental taxes on the optimal level have the potential to reduce environmental problems/ ecological imbalance, if not implemented in conjunction with policies such as tax exemptions, refunds or tax allowances that limit their impact.

本文利用创新的非线性模型，即面板平滑过渡回归 (PSTR) 模型，研究了环境相关税收对 1995 年至 2016 年期间欧盟 15 国环境绩效的影响。尽管之前已经讨论了环境税的有效性，但尚未充分研究这些税作为反映人类对环境/生态系统压力的措施对生态平衡表的潜在影响。因此，本文以农田、牧场、林地和渔场等主要生态生产区类型为基础，讨论总体生态平衡及其主要组成部分。结果表明，环境相关税收收入占 GDP 的比重在超过一定阈值后显着降低了生态赤字，但耕地平衡账户则不然。因此，如果不与限制其影响的免税、退税或税收减免等政策一起实施，在最佳水平上精心设计的环境税有可能减少环境问题/生态失衡。