Puzzling tax attitudes and labels

Abstract

We find that through labelling one can significantly affect attitudes towards a tax. The gasoline tax meets a stronger reluctance than virtually the same tax when it is called the CO₂ tax on gasoline.

Acknowledgement

This research was financially supported by Mistra's Climate Policy Research Program (CLIPORE) and the Malmsten Foundation.

Notes

¹ We do not have any representative studies, but according to SIFO, 68% of people in Stockholm want a reduced gasoline tax (the survey was conducted in May and June 2006). In September 2006, Motormännen had collected 1.3 million names in favour of a reduced gasoline tax, one of the largest protests of its kind ever.

² The gasoline taxation in Sweden has over time been fairly average compared to other OECD countries.

³ Note that the sample is not representative for the Swedish population, so the results should be interpreted accordingly.

Table 1. Tax attitudes, in percent

⁴ The mean for the gasoline tax is 3.4 where Abolish is assigned 1 and Increase a lot 6. For the CO₂ tax, the mean is 4.0.

⁵ Summary statistics for the explanatory variables are presented in Table A1 in the Appendix.