Ian Parry


Ian Parry is a senior fellow at Resources for the Future, Washington, DC. He received a Ph.D. in economics from the University of Chicago in 1993 and an MA in economics from Warwick University in 1987. His research focuses primarily on environmental, transportation, tax and public health policies.




Papers Published in World Economics:


Should Fuel Taxes Be Scrapped in Favor of Pay-by-the-Mile Charges?
Author: Ian Parry

This paper discusses the appropriate balance between traditional gasoline taxes and charging by the mile, focusing on economic efficiency considerations. It begins with a brief discussion of the five major passenger vehicle issues of concern—local pollution, greenhouse warming, oil dependency, traffic congestion, and traffic accidents—and summarizes evidence on the dollar value costs of these problems for passenger vehicles in the United States. It then discusses how much fuel taxation might be justified to account for them, as well as how much taxation might be appropriate on fiscal grounds, assuming per mile charges are unavailable. Finally, it discusses to what extent fuel taxation should be replaced with per mile taxes.

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