A Comparative History of Motor Fuels Taxation, 19092009

Why Gasoline Is Cheap and Petrol Is Dear

By (author) Carl-Henry Geschwind

Not available to order

Publication date:

09 May 2017

Length of book:

256 pages

Publisher

Lexington Books

ISBN-13: 9781498553810

Slowing down global warming is one of the most critical problems facing the world’s policymakers today. One favored solution is to regulate carbon consumption through taxation, including the taxation of gasoline. Yet gasoline tax levels are much lower in the United States than elsewhere. Why is this so, and what does it tell us about the prospects for taxing carbon here? A Comparative History of Motor Fuels Taxation, 1909–2009: Why Gasoline Is Cheap and Petrol Is Dear examines these questions by tracing the evolution of gasoline tax policies in the United States, Germany, the United Kingdom, and New Zealand since the early twentieth century. In the process, it highlights the crucial role played by fiscal crises.

Chapter 1: The Beginnings of the Gasoline Tax, 1909–1929
Chapter 2: Responding to Depression and the War, 1929–1949
Chapter 3: Boom Years, 1949–1969
Chapter 4: Oil Shocks and Economic Stagnation, 1969–1989
Chapter 5: The Age of Global Warming, 1989–2009

This book is one of the very best comparative studies we have on the international history of taxation. Carl-Henry Geschwind brilliantly uses the history of gasoline taxation to reflect on fundamental issues of political economy. Consequently, the book is certain to stimulate a new wave of scholarship on the comparative history of consumption taxation. The book should become required reading for all scholars and policymakers interested in the political and economic interaction of consumption and income taxation.