The joint effects of energy prices and carbon taxes on environmental and economic performance: Evidence from the French manufacturing sector

Author: Damien Dussaux

The paper estimates the effect of energy prices and carbon taxation on firms’ environmental and economic performance. The analysis uses data on 8 000 firms that are representative of the French manufacturing sector and observed during 2001-2016. This paper also measures the causal impact of the carbon tax over the period 2014-2018 and simulates the effect of further increasing the carbon tax rate from €45 to €86 per tonne of CO2.

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The fiscal implications of the low-carbon transition

Authors: Assia Elgouacem, Håvard Halland, Enrico Botta and Gurtegh Singh

Fossil fuels play an important role in the budget of several governments. On the one hand, half of the countries identified as resource-rich derived 50% or more of their government revenue from fossil-fuel resources. On the other hand, fossil fuel consumption in road transport is an important tax base for several countries. This fiscal entanglement creates specific challenges for countries in preparing for a low carbon future. In addition to the traditional challenges of volatility and unpredictability of resource revenues, resource-rich countries are increasingly exposed to the risk of stranded assets. While energy demand is estimated to grow under current and announced policies, a dramatic reshuffle in the world energy mix will need to take place. In this context, this paper reviews the evidence on the role of fossil fuels in government budget (section 2) and the best practice for the management of resource revenues, including the role of sovereign wealth funds and strategic investment funds (section 3). Section 4 discusses the role of green tax reform in preparing the tax system for the low-carbon transition.

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Designing fair and work-oriented unemployment benefits: The case of Belgium

Authors: Alexander Hijzen and Andrea Salvatori

This note focuses on the design of fair and work-oriented unemployment benefits, with a specific focus on Belgium, a country in which the design of the unemployment benefits system has become the subject of an intense policy debate in recent years. After taking stock of the most recent literature and international policy practices, the note describes the main features of the Belgian unemployment benefit system and proposes a number of policy recommendations that can help to make the current unemployment benefit system more work-oriented and fair across all groups of unemployed.

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