When Will People Pay to Pollute? Environmental Taxes, Political Trust, and Experimental Evidence from Britain

Abstract

Previous studies have argued that political trust shapes public opinion with respect to policies for environmental protection, but this paper provides the first evidence that the relationship is causal. The paper presents results from survey experiments investigating conditions under which Britons are willing to pay taxes on polluting activities. Public willingness to pay increases sharply if new environmental taxes are offset by cuts to other kinds of taxes, but political distrust undermines much of the effect of this revenue-neutrality. People are also no more willing if revenues are hypothecated for spending on environmental protection, while making such taxes more tangible to people—by naming petrol and electricity as specific products to which they will apply—has a modestly negative effect.