During the first part of the project of 1.5 years at Harvard University, the researcher has conducted different tasks, first a deep analysis of the literature on the effects of environmental taxation using different forms of CGE modelling methods. As a result of this review he obtained a detailed report of the state-of-the-art in the field and some potential research gaps he tries to fill during the overall period. The result of this review ended up with a research article: “Environmental taxation and the double dividend hypothesis in CGE modelling literature: A critical review”, already published in the Journal of Policy Modeling.
A second line of work consisted in looking for the data to develop and feed the models and the development of a highly detailed Social Accounting Matrix (SAM) for Spain. A third line of work consisted in developing a set of models to provide different possibilities of analysis: Static models, dynamic models, for industry tax and subsidies analysis, for externality taxation analysis, only for CO2, for a set of 31 emission pollutants, etc. This period ended with an article called “Carbon Taxes and the Double Dividend Hypothesis in a Recursive-Dynamic CGE model for Spain”, accepted in Economic Systems Research. Finally, another line of work consisted in developing different scenarios in order to test them in the models and analyse the results obtained. This period ended with an article called “Environmental Fiscal Reform and the Double Dividend: Evidence from a Dynamic General Equilibrium Model”, published in Sustainability Journal.
During the second part of the project of 1 year at ENT Environment and Management, different tasks have been conducted, first a deep analysis of the literature on environmental taxes in Europe and Spain. A second line of work has been developing scenarios of the different current taxes in electricity and waste, coherent with their current situation. In a third line of work we have developed different scenarios new other possibilities to change the economic and environmental impacts of taxes. Finally, a fourth line of work has consisted in developing additional improved scenarios to test them into the models and improve both the economic and the environmental effects of these taxes. Different policy implementations have been proposed.
This second period of research has concluded with three new publications for scientific journals: “Reformulating taxes for an energy transition”, already published in Energy Economics journal; “Assessing Waste Taxation: an Empirical Study in a CGE Multi-Pollutant Framework”, that is being reviewed and “Energy taxation policies can counteract the rebound effect: empirical evidence” that is also being reviewed. Two progress reports have also been produced. Another article for a Spanish journal (Ambienta) and another for a Spanish newspaper (Diario16) have been published for dissemination purposes.
Besides, the results of the action have been presented in two conferences: the 8th Atlantic Workshop on Energy and Environmental Economics, the 21st and the 22nd June 2018 in A Toxa, Spain, and The Energy Modelling Platform for Europe (EMP-E) 2018 – Modelling clean energy pathways, from the 25th and the 26th September in Brussels. Also, for dissemination purposes, eight interviews with policy-makers, practitioners and scientists have been conducted, a blog with 20 posts and a specific Twitter profile has been developed. The action has also been disseminated via the host social network profiles, website and newsletter.