Public support for carbon pricing policies and different revenue recycling options: a systematic review and meta-analysis of the survey literature

Identifying policy conditions that foster public support is critical for implementing effective direct and indirect carbon pricing policies. We conduct a systematic review and meta-analysis to examine the survey-based literature on change in public support for carbon pricing policies when different revenue recycling options are presented to respondents. Following a comprehensive and transparent machine-learning assisted screening of the literature, our dataset comprises 35 studies containing 70 surveys across 26 countries covering a total of more than 100,000 respondents. We find that the introduction of revenue recycling options increases public support for carbon pricing scheme, but to different degrees depending on recycling scheme and region. Our meta-regression results indicate that green spending (i.e. using revenues for climate-friendly projects) is the only revenue recycling option associated with a statistically significant increase in public support for carbon pricing policies when compared to an allocation of the revenues towards public finance (i.e. using revenues government budget purposes). Our findings moreover suggest that the effect of revenue recycling options on public support depends on the region, and is statistically stronger in Africa, Asia and Pacific, and Latin America and Caribbean compared to North America.