Appealing to Independents: information on negative externalities increases support for environmental corrective taxes

Abstract

Climate change requires urgent global action, but efforts to implement solutions like a carbon tax face deep political polarization, particularly in the United States. This study explores how framing corrective taxes as welfare-enhancing tools might influence public support. Through a pre-registered survey experiment, we manipulate information about the economic benefits of corrective taxes that address negative externalities, assessing their impact on support across political groups. Our findings reveal that this information significantly increases the belief across all groups that the benefits of a carbon tax outweigh its costs and makes increasing social welfare a more salient goal. While Independents show significant positive shifts in support for carbon taxes, moving from weakly negative to weakly positive stances, Republicans remain largely unmoved, likely due to entrenched ideological resistance.

Files

Additional details