The Danish Pesticide Tax
Abstract
This case study analyses the effects of the Danish pesticide tax (1996-2013) on agriculture which was introduced as an ad valorem tax in 1996, doubled in 1998, and redesigned in 2013 as a tax based on the toxicity of the pesticides. The Danish pesticide taxes probably represent the world's highest pesticide taxes on agriculture, which makes it interesting to analyze how effective they have been. Here the effects of the ad valorem tax (1996-2013) are analyzed. The case study demonstrates the challenges of choosing an optimal tax design in a complex political setting where, additionally, not all individuals in the target group necessarily react to the economic incentives as predicted by economic modeling. It also demonstrates that a small first green-tax-step over time might develop into a better tax design.
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