A Study On The Influences Of Carbon Tax To China’s Regional Economic Development

As the great impact of global warming, the imposition of carbon taxes have been world widely regarded as an effective mean to reduce the carbon emission. As the research in both the academic field and business field going further, china’s imposition of carbon tax has been put on the agenda of government works. However, people may also pay much attention to the negative effects arise from carbon taxes, because china’s regional economic development is unbalance. This article focuses on the influences of carbon taxes on china’s regional economic development, and aims to reduce the negative effects of carbon taxes on china’s regional economic development through reasonable design of the carbon taxes and to provide measures, to ensure that carbon taxes can be smoothly introduced and make positive results.With respect to the research methods, this article combines theoretical analysis with empirical study, links qualitative analysis and quantitative analysis together. This article begins with the theoretical analysis of carbon taxes, on the basis of analyzing the characteristic and effects of carbon taxes carried out in northern Europe country, discusses the influences of carbon taxes on china’s regional economic development, including its impacts on economic growth, income distribution, energy conservation and emission reduction, employment levels, and the coordination development of regional economy. Then choose the data of the regions in china between 1995 and 2009, in order to makes demonstration analysis. In the part of empirical analysis, the mainland of China is divided into eight major regions:northwest, northern coast, eastern coast, southern coast, middle reaches of the Yellow River, middle reaches of the Yangtze River, greater southwest and greater northwest area, then improved Cobb Douglas production model and panel data are used to estimate, the conclusion as follow:the influence of Carbon tax to each area of our country is completely different, In general, the positive influence of carbon tax outweigh its negative influence, so it can be collecting the carbon tax, and the main negative influence of collecting the carbon tax appears in carbon tax would increase the income gap of the capital and labor elements.In the Final part of this article, we raise some policy suggestions according to the analysis result and the experiences of the developed countries, to ensure that carbon taxes can be smoothly introduced and achieve positive result:firstly, to implement stepped tax rate of carbon tax in different regions, enforce the tax preference policies appropriately; secondly, to perfect taxation system, keep taxation neutrally; thirdly, to do preliminary propaganda works well, to enhance people’s awareness of paying taxes; fourthly, to use the revenue of carbon tax reasonably, to promote carbon sequestration in the Midwest and the Northeast; Finally, to carry out "cleanness to develop mechanism(CDM)"on a national scale.