Scandinavian Working Papers in Economics

HUI Working Papers,
HUI Research

No 111: The effects of taxing truck distance on CO2 emissions from transports in retailing

Kenneth Carling, Johan Håkansson (), Xiangli Meng and Niklas Rudholm ()
Additional contact information
Kenneth Carling: Dalarna University, Postal: SE-791 88 Falun, Sweden
Johan Håkansson: Dalarna University, Postal: SE-791 88 Falun, Sweden
Xiangli Meng: Dalarna University, Postal: SE-791 88 Falun, Sweden,
Niklas Rudholm: Dalarna University, Postal: SE-791 88 Falun, Sweden,

Abstract: To finance transportation infrastructure and to address social and environmental negative externalities of road transports, several countries have recently introduced or consider a distance based tax on trucks. In the competitive retail market such tax can be expected to lower the demand and thereby reduce CO2 emissions of road transports. However, as we show in this paper, such tax might also slow down the transition towards e-tailing. Considering that previous research indicates that a consumer switching from brick-and-mortar shopping to e-tailing reduces her CO2 emissions substantially, the direction and magnitude of the environmental net effect of the tax is unclear. In this paper, we assess the net effect in a Swedish regional retail market where the tax not yet is in place. We predict the net effect on CO2 emissions to be positive, but off-set by about 50% because of a slower transition to e-tailing.

Keywords: spatial distribution of e-tailing and consumers; CO2 emissions measurement; online retailing; environmental taxes; carbon footprint; road network

JEL-codes: D22; L13; L81; R12

15 pages, June 15, 2015

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