Distributional and Efficiency Impacts of Gasoline Taxes: An Econometrically Based Multi-market Study

Because of its potential to improve the environment and enhance national security, reducing automobile-related gasoline consumption has become a major U.S. public policy issue. Recently, many analysts have called for new or more stringent policies to discourage gasoline consumption. Proposals include a tightening of corporate average fuel economy (CAFE) standards and subsidies to retirements of older (gasguzzling) vehicles, as well as increments to the federal gasoline tax (...).