Carbon taxation, prices and inequality in Australia

from the combustion of fossil fuels, has led to proposals for non-market mechanisms such as regulation, and market mechanisms such as tradable emissions permits and carbon taxes, in order to reduce emissions. Market methods are usually preferred in terms of efficiency, and the carbon tax is deemed as being the easiest to implement and monitor. Owen (1992, p. 4)compares carbon taxes with other instruments; Pearce (1991) provides a summary of the advantages and disadvantages of a carbon tax; and Dower and Zimmerman (1992) compare the merits of carbon taxes and tradable emissions permits. A carbon tax would affect the price of fossil fuels and thus consumer prices,both directly for fuels and indirectly for manufactured goods. These price changes would alter the levels of final demands, and therefore fossil fuel use and aggregate carbon dioxide emissions. This paper investigates the orders of magnitude of a carbon tax required to reduce carbon dioxide emissions in Australia such that the Toronto target is met; this requires a reduction in emissions of 20 per cent of 1988 levels by 2005. The paper also examines the

Anisotropy in Turbulent Flows and in Turbulent Transport

We discuss the problem of anisotropy and intermittency in statistical theory of high Reynolds-number turbulence (and turbulent transport). We present a detailed description of the new tools that allow effective data analysis and systematic theoretical studies such as to separate isotropic from anisotropic aspects of turbulent statistical fluctuations. Employing the invariance of the equations of fluid mechanics to all rotations, we show how to decompose the (tensorial) statistical objects in terms of the irreducible representation of the SO(3) symmetry group. For the case of turbulent advection of passive scalar or vector fields, this decomposition allows rigorous statements to be made: (i) the scaling exponents are universal, (ii) the isotropic scaling exponents are always leading, (iii) the anisotropic scaling exponents form a discrete spectrum which is strictly increasing as a function of the anisotropic degree. Next we explain how to apply the SO(3) decomposition to the statistical Navier-Stokes theory. We show how to extract information about the scaling behavior in the isotropic sector. Doing so furnishes a systematic way to assess the universality of the scaling exponents in this sector, clarifying the anisotropic origin of the many measurements that claimed the opposite. A systematic analysis of Direct Numerical Simulations and of experiments provides a strong support to the proposition that also for the non-linear problem there exists foliation of the statistical theory into sectors of the symmetry group. The exponents appear universal in each sector, and again strictly increasing as a function of the anisotropic degreee.Comment: 150 pages, 26 figures, submitted to Phys. Re

The Distributional Impact of Domestic Fuel Taxation

This paper attempts to estimate the regressivity and distributional impact of a domestic fuel tax in Australia, in both cross-sectional and life-cycle contexts. The question of whether a tax policy may attempt to compensate for the regressivity of a domestic fuel tax by redistributing the tax revenue in the form of increased transfer payments to those on low incomes is also considered. The paper focuses on 'impact effects' and does not account for behavioral responses. However, special emphasis is placed on lifetime incidence. The results suggest that, compared with a tax on food which is the most regressive of all consumption taxes, the impact effects on income distribution of introducing a tax on domestic fuel are likely to be small. Furthermore, when transfer payments are adjusted to maintain revenue-neutrality, the regressivity is more than compesated. The results hold in both cross-sectional and life-cycle contexts.Revenue; Tax; Taxation; Transfer Payments