Psychological effect of taxation and responsibility. A reply to Thomas A. Okey and Bruce A. Wright

In a recent article entitled “Sufficient fuel taxes would enhance ecologies, economies and communities”, Thomas A. Okey and Bruce A. Wright defend tax increases as a means of reducing pollution levels caused by vehicles. In their article, Okey and Wright present the opposite view of that of Bazin et al., recently published in “Ecological economics”. The latter argue that taxation could have a crowding-out effect on responsible behaviour. The present article is intended as a response to that of Thomas A. Okey and Bruce A. Wright. We shall defend the position that taxation is certainly not a unique solution, nor is it the best solution to the problem of pollution.