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Paper alert! Forthcoming in @Global_Policy. Beyond Carbon Pricing: Tax Reform is Climate Policy. Pre-publication version available here: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3746463. THREAD
1. Carbon pricing means viewing #climatechange as a market failure, rather than as a problem of societal transformation. Rapid decarbonization will require more than market corrections; it demands strong state intervention!
2. So, aggressive climate policy begins w/ a reassertion of state sovereignty – not intervening just enough to fix market failures. Climate policy needs to focus on creating public goods, not fixing public bads.
3. How? States should focus on fixing loopholes that allow corporations to offshore their profits and avoid paying taxes. cc @MkBlyth
4. Lots of multinationals, incl. #fossilfuel companies evade BILLIONS in taxes thru offshoring. See also work by @toddtucker @gabriel_zucman @JosephEStiglitz https://www.reuters.com/article/global-oil-tax-havens/special-report-how-oil-majors-shift-billions-in-profits-to-island-tax-havens-idUSKBN28J1IK
5. Offshoring contributes to #climatechange https://www.nature.com/articles/s41559-018-0497-3 @vgalaz
6. Offshoring contributes income inequality, which contributes to climate change, as per latest #EmissionsGapReport:
7. AND Ex post analyses of carbon pricing show limited impacts, and lots of political controversy. See work by @BarryRabe @mmildenberger @leahstokes. https://bostonreview.net/science-nature-politics/leah-c-stokes-matto-mildenberger-trouble-carbon-pricing
8. Instead of doubling down on a policy w/ limited impacts and political baggage, we should think bigger abt the role of the state in the #climatecrisis. Tax policy is climate policy too. FIN
