Environmental taxation very often comprises special provisions for parts of the business sector in order to attenuate effects on competitiveness of emissionintensive activities. This paper discusses motives, alternative designs and criteria for the evaluation of such safeguards and analyzes if...

According to the traditional theory, for energy taxes uniform rates across sectors are optimal. But wherever attempts are made to "green" the tax system at least some sectors are treated differently. Exemption regulations for energy-intensive sectors are not the only but perhaps the only...