Optimal environmental charges/taxes : easy to estimate and surplus-yielding

Abstract

The estimation of the optimal charges/taxes on environmental disruption and the financing of the spending on the abatement of environmental disruption are important practical problems. This paper shows that, for most cases where some abatement is desirable, both the estimation and the financing problems may be easily solved. It is desirable to charge disruption (at least) at the marginal cost of abatement (which is easier to estimate than the marginal damage of disruption) and such a charge will normally yield total revenue in excess of the amount of abatement spending.