Tax me if I win: overcoming reluctance to French carbon tax
1 : Paris School of Economics
(PSE)
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Website
Paris School of Economics, PARIS SCHOOL OF ECONOMICS
48 boulevard Jourdan 75014 Paris -
France
2 : Paris School of Economics
(PSE)
-
Website
Ecole d'Économie de Paris
48 boulevard Jourdan 75014 Paris -
France
3 : Université Panthéon-Sorbonne
(UP1)
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Website
Université de recherche Paris Sciences Lettres (PSL)
12 place du Panthéon - 75231 Paris Cedex 05 -
France
Using a new survey and National households' survey data, we investigate French perception over carbon taxation. We find that French people largely reject a tax and dividend policy where revenues of the tax would be redistributed uniformly. However, their perception about the properties of the tax are largely biased: people overestimate the negative impact on their purchasing power, wrongly think the scheme is regressive, and do not perceive it as environmentally effective. Our econometric analysis shows that correcting these three bias would suffice to generate majority acceptance. Yet, we find that people's beliefs are well anchored and their revisions biased towards pessimism, so that only few can be convinced.