The Political Economy of Carbon Taxation

Carbon taxation is often seen as a key instrument for cost-effective greenhouse gas mitigation. Yet, we observe an implementation gap in terms of coverage and stringency. Successful adoption of carbon taxes depends on a myriad of political, legal, economic, technical, and multilateral factors. Considering such circumstances is crucial for successful policy choices to mitigate climate change effectively and in a just and acceptable manner.
Conducive conditions to carbon pricing have been studied along different lines. Quantitative analyses identify correlations of certain indicators with strong climate policy, but tend to neglect causal mechanisms. On the other hand, certain factors (e.g. public support), are studied extensively, but often without comprehensive inclusion of other contextual variables. This makes it difficult to judge their relevance in comparison to other factors. Finally, the case study literature offers a more in-depth analysis of individual climate policy processes. Since these studies naturally have a limited spatial-temporal focus, external validity is typically low. Besides, these studies rely on a variety of analytical approaches, impeding comparison further.
The main objective of the study is to draw lessons from such qualitative case studies to understand when and why different political economy factors are relevant for the adoption success of carbon taxes, and how they interact with each other. To that end, a systematic review of the case study literature on carbon taxes is conducted, including successful adoption as well as failed attempts on a global scale. This allows assessing the political economy of carbon taxes in different contexts and comparing them within a single analytical framework. The underlying study contributes to evidence-based climate policy by providing the hitherto scarce synthesis of qualitative data about carbon tax adoption. This approach allows for a more unbiased policy assessment and an inclusion of broader social science knowledge on carbon taxes.