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Would this disproportionately hurt lower income earners who live in the cheaper suburbs and have longer commutes? Easy to ask for that pigovian tax when you've
by nether 10y ago
Would this disproportionately hurt lower income earners who live in the cheaper suburbs and have longer commutes? Easy to ask for that pigovian tax when you've got that sweet downtown loft.
- lmm 10y agoThe other stereotype is that the poorest people are crammed into high-crime downtown areas while the middle class live out in the suburbs. I don't know which way the statistics line up.
- nether 10y agoA gas tax is basically regressive according to this paper (pdf page 9): > The gasoline tax’s tendency to place a greater burden on low-income households is often stated as one of the strongest arguments against the tax [West, 2004a, 755]. Taxes on gasoline have been shown to be regressive in numerous economic studies. A 1989 study by Poterba concluded that gasoline taxes were about 15 percent of pre-tax income for the lowest income groups in the U.S., compared to 2.8 percent for the highest income groups [Poterba, 1989, 325]. http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.554.7122&rep=rep1&type=pdf http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.554...
- lmm 10y agoThose stats could be true even if lower-income people drove a lot less than wealthy people - it's talking about what proportion of income they spend on gas on average.