Essays on the Distributional Effects of Carbon Pricing Policies: Applied and Methodological Issues

• Autores: Manuel Ángel Tomás García
• Directores de la Tesis: Petr Mariel Chladkova (dir. tes.), Iñaki Arto Olaizola (codir. tes.)
• Lectura: En la Universidad del País Vasco - Euskal Herriko Unibertsitatea ( España ) en 2025
• Idioma: inglés
• Programa de doctorado: Programa de Doctorado en Economía: Instrumentos del Análisis Económico por la Universidad de Cantabria; la Universidad de Oviedo y la Universidad del País Vasco/Euskal Herriko Unibertsitatea
• Menciones:
  • Internacional
• Calificación: Sobresaliente Cum Laude
• Materias:
  • Ciencias económicas
• Enlaces
  • Tesis en acceso abierto en: ADDI
• Resumen

  • Climate change and the ecological crisis pose significant threats, and addressing these issues requires effective policies. Carbon pricing has been identified as a critical tool for reducing greenhouse gas emissions, but its distributional impacts can vary depending on the type of carbon pricing applied, the sector or fossil fuel targeted, and even from one country to another. This thesis analyses the distributional effects of carbon pricing policies in Spain through case studies and develops new synthetic databases by integrating income and consumption surveys to enhance microsimulation and distributional analysis. Chapter 2 employs an environmentally extended multi-regional input-output model to calculate the carbon footprint of Spanish households (2008–2017), showing that municipalities with fewer than 10,000 inhabitants have higher per capita carbon emissions than those in municipalities with larger populations, making households in these areas more sensitive to carbon pricing. Chapter 3 examines the impact of raising the diesel tax to match petrol tax levels in Spain. Without compensatory measures, this policy would disproportionately affect rural and middle-income households, but with compensation, the effects become progressive, and it is possible to protect specific groups of the population who are more severely affected by the implementation of the policy. Chapter 4 develops a novel statistical matching strategy to merge income and consumption surveys of European Union countries, which could contribute to enhancing welfare, inequality, and poverty analysis. Chapter 5 explores the impact of carbon pricing in the European Union road transport sector on Spanish households, showing that price increases are concentrated primarily in fuels for private transport and transport services. The distributional effects are regressive when analysed with respect to income but almost proportional when analysed with respect to household expenditure. Households living in less populated areas, those with more people of working age, and those with medium levels of education would experience higher welfare losses. The findings of this thesis may help decision-makers achieve a just, acceptable, and politically viable energy transition.