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Article
Does the Indexing of Government Transfers Make Carbon Pricing Progressive?
American Journal of Agricultural Economics (2012)
  • Don Fullerton, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
  • Garth Heutel, University of North Carolina at Greensboro
  • Gilbert Metcalf, Tufts University
Abstract
We analyze both the uses side and the sources side incidence of domestic climate policy using an analytical general equilibrium model, taking into account the degree of government program indexing. When transfer programs such as Social Security are explicitly indexed to inflation, higher energy prices automatically lead to cost-of-living adjustments for recipients. We show results with no indexing, 100 percent indexing, and partial indexing based on our analysis of actual transfer programs. When households are classified by annual income, the indexing of U.S. transfers is not enough to offset the regressive uses side, but when they are classified by annual expenditures as a proxy for permanent income, transfer indexing does offset regressivity across the lowest income groups.
Keywords
  • climate policy,
  • government transfers,
  • redistribution
Publication Date
December, 2012
Citation Information
Don Fullerton, Garth Heutel and Gilbert Metcalf. "Does the Indexing of Government Transfers Make Carbon Pricing Progressive?" American Journal of Agricultural Economics (2012)
Available at: http://works.bepress.com/don_fullerton/62/