Externality‐Correcting Taxes and Regulation*
研究了在税收和直接规制都存在缺陷时，如何组合使用这两种工具来控制个人消费行为产生的外部性，并刻画了最优政策组合。
Abstract In much of the literature on externalities, taxes and direct regulation have been considered as alternative policy instruments. Both instruments might be imperfect in practice, reflecting informational deficiencies and other limitations. We analyse the use of taxes and regulation in combination, to control externalities arising from individual consumption behaviour. We consider the cases either where taxes are imperfectly differentiated to reflect individual differences in externalities, or where some consumption escapes taxation. In both cases, we characterize the optimal instrument mix, and we show how changing the level of direct regulation alters the optimal externality tax.