Graduate

Research Master 2 in Microquantitative economics

Major: Game theory, experimental economics, and applied econometrics,

Gate Lyon-St étienne, University of Jean Monnet, France

The master course focuses on three complementary domains of contemporary quantitative microeconomics: game theory and applications incl. cooperative games and networks: experimental economics and applications incl. behavior economics, markets, incentives, social preferences, protocols programming; applied econometrics incl. labor and spatial economics.

Master thesis title: Emission in metropolitan area: an essay on the implementation of a commuting tax

Supervisor: Prof. Stéphane RIOU, University of Jean Monnet

Abstract:

The paper discusses the intervention of commuting taxes within a metropolitan area (MA) in order to reach both carbon dioxide emission minimization arising from commuters and total welfare maximization. A commuting tax is set according to which jurisdiction a commuter participates in, the central city or the suburban jurisdictions. Used the recent framework of Gaigne, Riou, and Thisse, the work shows the necessary and sufficient conditions for a government to impose commuting taxes: either the agglomeration economies are too high, or the commuting costs are too low, or both. For each jurisdiction, the paper then determines the level of commuting taxes which is in term of the agglomeration economics, the commuting costs, the emission rates and the size of the MA. The paper then analyzes the relationship among them to understand better how commuting taxes interact with other factors. The commuting tax setting in the centrality (the suburban jurisdictions) increases (decreases) with the agglomeration economies, decreases (increases) with the size of the MA. Otherwise, the commuting tax in the centrality (the suburban jurisdictions) is concave (convex) with the commuting costs. The results also show the commuting tax set by the central city is in positive relation with the commuting tax setting in the suburban jurisdictions

Keywords: Commuting taxes, metropolitan area, administrative boundary, economic boundary, carbon dioxide emissions

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT. I especially would like to sincerely thank my supervisor Prof. Stéphane Riou for his support of my thesis, for his guidance, and for his pain-staking effort in reading the drafts. My sincere thanks also go to Café- Seminar group for their discussion.