ABSTRACT
As of early 2000, nine countries had raised taxes on environmental harm and used the revenue to pay for cuts in taxes on income. West European governments have enacted all of these modest, revenue-neutral “tax shifts” in order to penalize destructive activities such as carbon emissions and pesticide use while encouraging constructive activities such as work and investment. Denmark and the Netherlands made two tax shifts each, and the United Kingdom will almost certainly make another soon, so that the total should soon reach a dozen tax shifts. 1 (See Table 1.)
