The political economy of an energy tax: The United Kingdom's Climate Change Levy

Energy taxes designed to control energy consumption, and to assist the achievement of climate change control targets under the Kyoto Protocol, are fairly common in European Union countries. Yet many of these taxes bear little resemblance to the design guidance that is given in economics textbooks. Political economy analysis, in which the interaction of economics and political reality is emphasised, explains the gap between theoretical ideals and practical reality. A closer look at the factors that influence real world policy design should help policy-oriented economists in designing measures that have a greater chance of adoption. The end-result may well be nth-best solutions which simply have to be 'lived with'. But there may also be room for design improvements that still honour the political constraints of policy design. This paper illustrates these issues in the context of one tax, the UK Climate Change Levy.