Xavier Labandeira

University of Vigo | UVIGO · Department of Applied Economics

We exploit a fuel tax increase in Portugal to identify its effect on cross-border fuel sales and associated carbon leakage in the Spanish border regions. Using a difference-in-difference strategy, we find that while gasoline sales remained unaffected, diesel sales in Spanish border regions increased by 6–9%. Synthetic control methods confirm these...

This paper reviews forty years of research applying econometric models of discrete-continuous choice to analyze residential demand for energy. The review is primarily from the perspective of economic theory. We examine how well the utility-theoretic models developed in the literature match data that is commonly available on residential energy use,...

We report a natural experiment on the border between Spain and Portugal, in which we analyze the potential effects of carbon pricing instruments on fuel tourism and the associated risk of carbon leakage. We exploit a fuel tax increase in Portugal to identify and quantify its effect on fuel sales in the Spanish border regions. Our results from apply...

The main aim of this paper is to analyze the different impacts of carbon taxation inMexican households at different income levels. First, we estimate a household demandsystem for non-durable goods with special emphasis on energy-related goods. Then, weuse the results to simulate the introduction of a carbon tax. We look at the potential toraise rev...

El Informe, de 800 páginas, da cumplimiento a la Resolución de creación del Comité, conforme a la que la futura reforma tributaria debe adecuarse a la realidad económica del siglo XXI y garantizar un sistema tributario “más equitativo, progresivo, justo y que incorpore la imposición medioambiental, digital y la perspectiva de género”. Se trata, con...

The importance of energy-environmental taxation in the transition to decarbonized economies does not correspond to its actual role due to several constraints on its application. This paper emphasizes one of the main barriers, the negative impacts on distribution and equity, and suggests alternatives to mitigate these effects. In particular, it list...

The importance of energy-environmental taxation in the transition to decarbonized economies does not correspond to its actual role due to several constraints on its application. This paper emphasizes one of the main barriers, the negative impacts on distribution and equity, and suggests alternatives to mitigate these effects. In particular, it list...

The global energy mix and cost structure of the power industry are experiencing a redefinition. Many countries are revamping electricity-pricing systems to guarantee fixed-cost recovery, often by raising the fixed charge of two-part tariff schemes. However, a key assumption of two-part tariff schemes and associated fixed cost recoveries is that con...

Renewable energy has a key role to play in the transition towards a low‐carbon society. Despite its importance, relatively little attention has been focused on the crucial impact of weather and climate on energy demand and supply, or the generation or operational planning of renewable technologies. In particular, to improve the operation and longer...

This paper attempts to quantitatively summarize the existing empirical evidence on the effects of energy efficiency policies on energy demand and on the price of associated durable goods, as well as to identify the main factors that systematically affect the estimated impacts. To this end, a meta-regression analysis of the effects of energy efficie...

Equity and efficiency are crucial issues behind any tax reform, but they are particularly relevant in countries with high inequality and large shares of poverty. This paper provides a comprehensive socio-economic empirical assessment of Mexico's proposed (and partially implemented) tax reforms in the energy domain, and of a hypothetical partial rem...

Environmental taxes and green tax reforms are increasingly seen as powerful tools for promoting a transition to sustainable economies [...]

The optimization of energy use is a growing concern in the commercial sector, particularly for retailers, given its relevance within total expenses and the increasing scrutiny of environmental performance indicators. In this paper, we conduct a field experiment (randomized control trial) in a major multinational company to test how information prov...

The great recession brought an increased need for public revenues and generated distributive concerns across many countries. This has led to a new generation of green tax reforms characterized by the use of markedly heterogeneous proposals that, overall, share a more flexible use of tax receipts adapted to the new economic environment. This article...

FSR Climate 2019, A literature-based assessment of the EU ETS, Florence School of Regulation, European University Institute, Florence, Italy

This paper analyses the rules for free allocation in the EU Emissions Trading System (EU ETS). The analysis draws on the empirical evidence emerging from two literature strands. One group of studies sheds light on the following questions: how efficient are free allocation rules in minimizing the risk of carbon leakage? Have they become more efficie...

Cold and heat waves represent a significant problem for the electricity generation sector. The disruptions cold and heat waves can cause in power production are beyond their consumption impacts through, for instance, higher peak demand. Unexpected stops at thermal or nuclear power plants by excessively high-temperature water constitute clear exampl...

This paper provides an updated calculation of the price and income responsiveness of Spanish consumers of transport fuels, with an explicit exploration of the effects of the recent economic crisis. We examine separate gasoline and diesel demand models using a set of estimators on a panel of 16 Spanish regions over the period 1999–2015. The paper co...

This short piece introduces the contributions of the supplemental issue "7th Atlantic Workshop on Energy and Environmental Economics". We have grouped the papers, which show a large thematic and methodological diversity, in three areas under a common theme: global views, the role of innovation, and national approaches to inform policies in the tran...

Price elasticities of energy demand have become increasingly relevant in estimating the socio-economic and environmental effects of energy policies or other events that influence the price of energy goods. Since the 1970s, a large number of academic papers have provided both short and long-term price elasticity estimates for different countries usi...

Los importantes cambios vividos en los mercados energéticos durante los últimos años y la creciente relevancia de las políticas energética y climática en la Unión Europea y, dentro de ella en España, hacen necesario poder anticipar el comportamiento de la demanda de energía ante variaciones en su precio, tanto a corto como a largo plazo. En este co...

Price elasticities of energy demand have become increasingly relevant in estimating the socio-economic and environmental effects of energy policies or other events that influence the price of energy goods. Since the 1970s, a large number of academic papers have provided both short and long-term price elasticity estimates for different countries usi...

El pasado 12 de diciembre se aprobó por parte de la Conferencia de las Partes de la Convención Marco sobre Cambio Climático de Naciones Unidas el Acuerdo de París. El Acuerdo es un hito muy importante en la lucha contra el cambio climático, aunque quizá no tanto como nos dicen los comentaristas más triunfalistas. En este breve artículo evaluamos lo...

The residential building sector is a major driver of current and future energy consumption and associated emissions, which can be potentially mitigated through significant energy-efficiency (EE) improvements in both emerging and developed countries. Yet, there are several persistent barriers that hinder the attainment of EE improvements in this are...

Price elasticities of energy demand have become increasingly relevant in estimating the socio-economic and environmental effects of energy policies or other events that influence the price of energy goods. Since the 1970s, a large number of academic papers have provided both short and long-term price elasticity estimates for different countries usi...

The rol of Environmental Taxes in Spanish Tax Reform

Energy efficiency has become an essential instrument to obtain effective greenhouse gas mitigation and reduced energy dependence. This introductory article contextualizes the contributions of the supplemental issue by showing the new setting for energy efficiency economics and policy; discussing the role of price instruments to promote energy savin...

In this chapter we start by enumerating the reasons why progress in realizing the energy efficiency potential has been so limited both for firms and households. Then we turn to the role of policy in moving agents closer to an optimal level of energy efficiency. Governments have a range of instruments at their disposal for doing so and while some of...

In spite of the large potential and existing efforts to foster energy efficiency in the residential sector, much remains to be achieved. This may be partially due to the many barriers and market failures faced by energy efficiency, which are even greater in this sector. In particular, informational failures seem to be pervasive and relevant in this...

The residential building sector is a major driver of current and future energy consumption and associated emissions, which can be potentially mitigated through significant energy-efficiency (EE) improvements in both emerging and developed countries. Yet, there are several persistent barriers that hinder the attainment of EE improvements in this are...

Due to climate change, energy dependence and other energy-related issues, most developed countries are attempting to reduce fossil-fuel use in the transport sector. Accordingly, there are several instruments that have been in place for many years, such as mandatory design standards, taxes on fuels, car purchase and ownership, and energy efficiency...

This article provides an overview of specific and systemic applications of energy taxes and environmental(or green) tax reforms. To do so it combines a theoretical and empirical assessment of the literature, with anon-exhaustive description of the practice of these instruments and packages in the real world. Besidesyielding a comprehensive approxim...

Transport is essential for the control of future greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and thus a target for active policy intervention in the future. Yet, social preferences for policies are likely to play an important role. In this paper we first review the existing literature on preferences regarding low-GHG car fuels, but also covering policy instrume...

Economic theory predicts that the increase of renewable electricity production should reduce the price of electricity in the short-run, which is also known as the ‘merit-order effect’. Although the merit-order effect is only one of several consequences of renewable production on the electricity system, it is crucial to determine its size for the ec...

Buildings are crucial to control present and future energy demand and, therefore, greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere. In this chapter we suggest that, due to a number of general and specific barriers to the implementation of energy efficiency in buildings, energy prices and conventional energy and environmental policy instruments may n...

Energy security is becoming an increasingly important issue in the energy domain. However, from an economic point of view, many questions related to energy security are still unclear: from its definition and the costs associated to insecurity, to the design of policies intended to reduce it. In this paper we first illustrate why the security of ene...

Cambio climático y energía son dos caras de la misma moneda. Por ello, para afrontar con éxito el problema del cambio climático es necesario un cambio importante en los sistemas energéticos actuales. Sin embargo, la mitigación de las emisiones de gases de efecto invernadero ha sido limitada hasta el momento, en buena medida por las características...

The sharp increase in energy prices and the growing concern for environmental issues, among other things, are behind the renewed interest in energy demand estimation. However, there is very little academic literature that takes account of the usual situation of energy suppliers: high quality but incomplete data. In this paper, we propose a useful a...

Growing concerns about climate change and energy dependence are driving specific policies to support renewable or more efficient energy sources such as cogeneration in many regions, particularly in the production of electricity. These policies have a non-negligible cost, and therefore a careful assessment of their impacts seems necessary. In partic...

The debate seems to be well settled among economists in that the best policy instrument to reduce carbon emissions is a carbon tax. However and surprisingly, most of these discussions have taken place in a firstbest setting. We think instead that second-best settings should be incorporated to the analysis with at least the same level of rigor. Ther...

Spain faces a complex situation regarding its climate change policies. On the one hand, greenhouse gas emissions have shown an important increase since 1990, being far from the Kyoto commitments. On the other hand, Spain is likely to suffer important impacts from climate change. However, there has been a rather limited application of corrective pol...

Este trabajo se ocupa de identificar los factores que determinan un nuevo contexto para la imposición energética: enquistamiento de la crisis y necesidad de consolidación fiscal, nuevos paquetes energéticos ingreso-gasto, potencialidad de nuevas figuras tributarias y los cambiantes objetivos de las políticas energéticas. El artículo pone un especia...

Este trabajo recoge los principales resultados de un estudio realizado para obtener la disponibilidad a pagar y las actitudes de las familias gallegas y españolas ante diversas alter-nativas de políticas de mitigación de los efectos del cambio climático. En el artículo se demues-tra que las sociedades española y gallega consideran el cambio climáti...

Este trabajo recoge los principales resultados de un estudio realizado para obtener la disponibilidad a pagar y las actitudes de las familias gallegas y españolas ante diversas alternativas de políticas de mitigación de los efectos del cambio climático. En el artículo se demuestra que las sociedades española y gallega consideran el cambio climático...

In this study, we summarize the main results of a phone survey conducted in order to assess attitudes towards climate change in Spain and Galicia and preferences for a green electricity program that reduces CO2 emissions, while making electricity more expensive. Overall findings show that Spanish citizens are quite concerned about the climate chang...

El autor repasa las principales políticas públicas articuladas en materia de cambio climático, ocupándose particularmente del análisis de los distintos enfoques que han orientado el diseño de los disintos instrumentos de adaptación y mitigación. Se preocupa en este sentido de aportar su punto vista en relación a la eficacia y oportunidad de los dis...

Energy efficiency and conservation are major elements for the improvement of the environmental impact of the energy sector, particularly regarding climate change. Energy efficiency also contributes to reducing external dependence and vulnerabilities in the energy domain. In this paper we discuss the factors that influence energy efficiency and cons...

What are the effects of emissions trading on a particular country? The efficiency and distribution effects associated with the implementation of the European Union Emissions Trading Scheme (EU ETS) in Spain were modelled using a static general equilibrium model. Three scenarios were examined for cost-effectiveness and fairness: a real market as est...

Climate Change Policies sheds light on the foundations, design and effects of climate change policies. Written by leading international experts in the field, this book deals with the various economic effects from climate change policies introduced at national and international levels. It also expertly describes actual applications of climate change...

Most public policies, particularly those in the energy sphere, have not only efficiency but also distributional effects. However, there is a trade-off between modelling approaches suitable for calculating those impacts on the economy. For the former most of the studies have been conducted with general equilibrium models, whereas partial equilibrium...

The present paper aims to reliably depict the impact of the European Union Emissions Trading Scheme (EU ETS) on Spain under different assumptions about the industries involved. Prior analyses, based either on highly aggregated macroeconomic or specific electricity industry models, have been limited in degree of detail or scope. Two types of modelin...

The role of climate policy on technical change, the international aspects of the problem related to chemical change the role of emissions trading schemes in strategies to combat climate change, and the utility of fiscal approaches as an alternative or supplement to pollution markets is discussed. Carlo Carraro, Emanuele Masseti and Lea Nicita uses...

The present paper aims to reliably depict the impact of the European Union Emissions Trading Scheme (EU ETS) on Spain under different assumptions about the industries involved. Prior analyses, based either on highly aggregated macroeconomic or specific electricity industry models, have been limited in degree of detail or scope. Two types of modelin...

10th IAEE European Conference

This article mainly discusses whether the introduction or increase of tourism taxation should be addressed through specific or general indirect taxation. With this aim, the paper describes the concept of tourism taxes and presents the several reasons that back their use. The paper also offers some numerical exercises comparing the effects of specif...

Although economists have usually defended the superiority of market-based instruments, and an increasing use of those measures in OECD countries has taken place, there has been (and still is) some reluctance by policy makers to use them for climate policy. The aim of this paper is to provide a theoretical framework which allows the explanation of t...

This article was submitted without an abstract, please refer to the full-text PDF file.

Este capítulo se ocupa de describir y valorar distintas aproximaciones correctoras de los efectos externos (esto es, no considerados en el funcionamiento normal del mercado) ocasionados por el automóvil privado. Después de presentar un conjunto de alternativas regulatorias y las principales pautas para su evaluación, concluimos que una política amb...

Albeit economists have usually defended the superiority of market-based instruments, and an increasing use of those measures in OECD countries has taken place, there has been (and still is) some reluctance by policy makers to use these instruments for controlling air pollution. The aim of this paper is to provide a theoretical framework which allow...

El cambio climático se ha configurado como uno de los principales desafíos ambientales a que se enfrentan las sociedades contemporáneas. El consenso científico existente sobre sus causas y graves efectos, junto a la gran carbonización de las economías actuales, han llevado a que la ciencia económica juegue un papel creciente y fundamental en este c...

El cambio climático es hoy el principal desafío ambiental a que se enfrentan nuestras sociedades. El creciente conocimiento científico sobre sus causas y graves efectos, junto a la gran intensidad carbónica de las economías actuales, hacen que la cuestión sea especialmente relevante para la ciencia económica. En este artículo me intereso por las po...

The present paper aims to reliably depict the impact of the European Union Emissions Trading Scheme (EU ETS) on Spain under different assumptions about the industries involved. Prior analyses, based either on highly aggregated macroeconomic or specific electricity industry models, have been limited in degree of detail or scope. Two types of modelin...

La preocupación por los fenómenos de cambio climático ha llevado a la aparición e intensificación de políticas públicas correctoras en el campo energético-ambiental. Dentro de éstas los denominados instrumentos económicos han jugado un papel preponderante en los últimos años. En este trabajo se describen los fundamentos teóricos del doble dividendo...

En este artículo presentamos un modelo de microsimulación para calcular los efectos de un impuesto sobre las emisiones españolas de CO2 (dióxido de carbono) de origen energético, con el objetivo de cumplir con los compromisos de la UE dentro del Protocolo de Kioto. El modelo usa los resultados de nuestra estimación previa de un sistema de demanda c...

Climate change is one of the greatest challenges faced by the humankind. This paper describes this phenomenon and the alternatives for its correction, emphasizing the possibilities of environmental taxation and green tax reforms to combat this global problem. El cambio climático es uno de los mayores desafíos a los que se enfrenta la humanidad en l...

Los economistas han manifestado desde siempre su preferencia por el uso de los denominados instrumentos o de mercado en las políticas ambientales. Estos mecanismos reciben ese nombre porque, de acuerdo con la teoría económica, permiten precisamente emular el funcionamiento del mercado, reduciendo considerablemente los problemas de información asimé...