The Influence of Environmental Taxes on Income Distribution: A Meta-analysis

Oral
2024 Prague [Global Evidence Summit]
Liu Y1, Wei L1, XIU H1, Chen Y2, Pan Y3, Xu Y4
1Evidence-Based Social Science Research Center, School of Public Health, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou, Gansu, China; School of Economics, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou, Gansu , China
2Evidence-Based Social Science Research Center, School of Public Health, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou, Gansu, China; Innovation Laboratory for Evidence-based Social Science, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou, Gansu, China
3School of Economics, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou, Gansu , China; Institute of Regional Finance, Gansu Provincial Institute of Finance, Lanzhou, Gansu, China
4School of Economics, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou, Gansu , China
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Background:

Eco-environmental protection and socio-economic development are two major issues facing the world today. Whether the levy of environmental taxes can help optimize income distribution and thus achieve coordination and balance between eco-environmental protection and socio-economic development is an issue that needs to be thoroughly explored and resolved.

Objective:

This study aims to explore the precise impact of environmental tax collection on income distribution.

Methods:

EBSCO, WOS, JSTOR and Google Scholar databases were selected as the information sources, and 481 related literatures were obtained by searching with ""environmental tax"" and ""income distribution"" as the subject terms. After eliminating duplicates, reviews, non-empirical evidence, and subject irrelevance, 54 independent samples from 16 documents were finally selected as the samples of this study, and the heterogeneity factors were decomposed by Meta-analysis.The results of Meta-analysis were presented in the form of forest plots, and the existence of publication bias was explored by drawing funnel plots.

Results:

Based on the meta-regression findings, environmental taxes has a comprehensive effect on income distribution (Effect size=-0.14, 95%, CI:-0.25,-0.07). Heterogeneity arises mainly from sample selection, the use of measures, and the measurement of environmental taxes. In addition, the funnel plot was symmetrically distributed, indicating that there was no publication bias in the studies and that the findings of the included studies were accurate and reliable.

Conclusions:

The collection of environmental taxes has widened the income distribution gap to a certain extent. To achieve synergistic development of environmental protection and socio-economic development, it is necessary to reform the fragmented and integrated environmental tax and fee system, establish environmental protection tax as the main tax, and expand the scope of taxation and optimize the design of tax rates."