A CBO STUDY: The Economic Costs of Fuel Economy Standards Versus a Gasoline Tax

A CBO STUDY: The Economic Costs of Fuel Economy Standards Versus a Gasoline Tax
Author:
Publisher:
Total Pages: 30
Release: 2003
Genre:
ISBN:

Some Members of Congress and public interest groups have recently proposed raising the corporate average fuel economy (CAFE) standards for automobiles. Proponents of CAFE standards see them as a way to decrease the United States' dependence on oil and its emissions of carbon dioxide (the predominant greenhouse gas). In this study, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimates the costs that raising CAFE standards would impose on automobile producers and consumers. This study also extends previous research by examining the potential cost savings from instituting a system in which producers could trade "fuel economy credits." Under that system, producers with high costs of complying with CAFE standards could meet the new standards by applying credits bought from producers that exceeded the standards. CBO also compares the costs of CAFE standards with those of a higher gasoline tax, an alternative policy for reducing gasoline consumption. Finally, CBO examines the available evidence on whether changing CAFE standards or the gasoline tax could improve social welfare, a general measure of society's well-being that includes not only the value derived from the goods and services that people consume but also factors that diminish the quality of life, such as pollution and traffic congestion.

Effects of Gasoline Prices on Driving Behavior and Vehicle Markets

Effects of Gasoline Prices on Driving Behavior and Vehicle Markets
Author: David Austin
Publisher: Government Printing Office
Total Pages: 60
Release: 2008
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN:

Gasoline prices and driving behavior. Volume of traffic ; Speed of traffic ; Applicability of findings to other regions of the United States -- Gasoline prices and vehicle markets. Market shares for cars and light trucks ; Gasoline prices and vehicle market status ; Changes in new vehicle fuel economy and pricing ; Changes in the used vehicle market -- Study data -- Analytical approach and economic results.

Corporate Average Fuel Economy and the Market for New Vehicles

Corporate Average Fuel Economy and the Market for New Vehicles
Author: Thomas Klier
Publisher: DIANE Publishing
Total Pages: 36
Release: 2011-08
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1437987842

Presents an overview of the economics literature on the effect of Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards on the new vehicle market. Since 1978, CAFE has imposed fuel economy standards for cars and light trucks sold in the U.S. market. This paper reviews the history of the standards, followed by a discussion of the major upcoming changes in implementation and stringency. It describes strategies that firms can use to meet the standards and reviews the CAFE literature as it applies to the new vehicle market. The paper concludes by highlighting areas for future research in light of the upcoming changes to CAFE. Charts and tables. This is a print on demand edition of an important, hard-to-find report.

Energy Policy

Energy Policy
Author:
Publisher: DIANE Publishing
Total Pages: 54
Release: 1993-06
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 9781568064932

Effectiveness and Impact of Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) Standards

Effectiveness and Impact of Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) Standards
Author: National Research Council
Publisher: National Academies Press
Total Pages: 181
Release: 2002-01-29
Genre: Science
ISBN: 0309170567

Since CAFE standards were established 25 years ago, there have been significant changes in motor vehicle technology, globalization of the industry, the mix and characteristics of vehicle sales, production capacity, and other factors. This volume evaluates the implications of these changes as well as changes anticipated in the next few years, on the need for CAFE, as well as the stringency and/or structure of the CAFE program in future years.

Reducing Gasoline Consumption

Reducing Gasoline Consumption
Author: Terry Dinan
Publisher: Nova Biomedical Books
Total Pages: 86
Release: 2003
Genre: Nature
ISBN:

Several Members of Congress and public interest groups have recently proposed policies that would reduce gasoline consumption in the United States. Such proposals stem primarily from a desire to enhance the nation's energy security and to decrease its emissions of carbon dioxide, a key greenhouse gas that affects the Earth's climate. This book compares three methods of reducing gasoline consumption: increasing the corporate average fuel economy (CAFE) standards that govern passenger vehicles, raising the federal tax on gasoline, and setting a limit on carbon emissions from gasoline combustion and requiring gasoline producers to hold allowances for those emissions (a policy known as a cap-and-trade program). Also, the book weighs the relative merits of those policies against several major criteria: whether they would minimise costs to producers and consumers; how reliably they would achieve a given reduction in gasoline use; their implications for automobile safety; and their effects on such factors as traffic congestion, requirements for highway construction, and emissions of air pollutants other than carbon dioxide. In addition, the book examines two more policy implications that lawmakers may be concerned about: the impact on people at different income levels and in different regions, and the effects on federal revenue.

The Consumer Response to Gasoline Price Changes

The Consumer Response to Gasoline Price Changes
Author: Kenneth Thomas Gillingham
Publisher: Stanford University
Total Pages: 298
Release: 2011
Genre:
ISBN:

When gasoline prices rise, people notice: the news is filled with reports of pinched household budgets and politicians feeling pressure to do something to ameliorate the burden. Yet, raising the gasoline tax to internalize externalities is widely considered by economists to be among the most economic efficiency-improving policies we could implement in the transportation sector. This dissertation brings new evidence to bear on quantifying the responsiveness to changing gasoline prices, both on the intensive margin (i.e., how much to drive) and the extensive margin (i.e., what vehicles to buy). I assemble a unique and extremely rich vehicle-level dataset that includes all new vehicle registrations in California 2001 to 2009, and all of the mandatory smog check program odometer readings for 2002 to 2009. The full dataset exceeds 49 million observations. Using this dataset, I quantify the responsiveness to gasoline price changes on both margins, as well as the heterogeneity in the responsiveness. I develop a novel structural model of vehicle choice and subsequent utilization, where consumer decisions are modeled in a dynamic setting that explicitly accounts for selection on unobserved driving preference at both the time of purchase and the time of driving. This utility-consistent model allows for the analysis of the welfare implications to consumers and government of a variety of different policies, including gasoline taxes and feebates. I find that consumers are responsive to changing gasoline prices in both vehicle choice and driving decisions, with more responsiveness than in many recent studies in the literature. I estimate a medium-run (i.e., roughly two-year) elasticity of fuel economy with respect to the price of gasoline for new vehicles around 0.1 for California, a response that varies by whether the vehicle manufacturer faces a tightly binding fuel economy standard. I estimate a medium-run elasticity of driving with respect to the price of gasoline around -0.15 for new personal vehicles in the first six years. Older vehicles are driven much less, but tend to be more responsive, with an elasticity of roughly -0.3. I find that the vehicle-level responsiveness in driving to gasoline price changes varies by vehicle class, income, geographic, and demographic groups. I also find that not including controls for economic conditions and not accounting for selection into different types of new vehicles based on unobserved driving preference tend to bias the elasticity of driving away from zero -- implying a greater responsiveness than the true responsiveness. This is an important methodological point, for much of the literature estimating similar elasticities ignores these two issues. These results have significant policy implications for policies to reduce gasoline consumption and greenhouse gas emissions from transportation. The relatively inelastic estimated responsiveness on both margins suggests that a gasoline tax policy may not lead to dramatic reductions in carbon dioxide emissions, but is a relatively non-distortionary policy instrument to raise revenue. When the externalities of driving are considered, an increased gasoline tax may not only be relatively non-distortionary, but even economic efficiency-improving. However, I find that the welfare changes from an increased gasoline tax vary significantly across counties in California, an important consideration for the political feasibility of the policy. Finally, I find suggestive evidence that the ``rebound effect'' of a policy that works only on the extensive margin, such as a feebate or CAFE standards, may be closer to zero than the elasticity of driving with respect to the price of gasoline. This suggestive finding is particularly important for the analysis of the welfare effects of any policy that focuses entirely on the extensive margin.

Clearing the Air

Clearing the Air
Author: David Austin
Publisher:
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2005
Genre:
ISBN:

Concerns about energy security and climate change have sparked legislators' interest in reducing gasoline consumption by increasing corporate average fuel-economy (CAFE) standards. Using an empirically rich simulation model and cost estimates for anticipated fuel-economy technologies, we estimate annual costs of reducing long-run gasoline consumption by 10% via a 3.8 miles per gallon increase in the standards, and the potential cost savings from allowing manufacturers to buy and sell fuel-economy credits. Maximum gasoline savings would be realized only after all existing vehicles were replaced, or 14 years in our model. A gasoline tax would produce greater immediate savings by encouraging people to drive less, and eventually to choose more fuel-efficient vehicles. We demonstrate the advantage of a tax by comparing the cost of the higher CAFE standards over the first 14 years, against the cost of a gasoline tax that would save the same amount of gasoline over that time.