Template-Type: ReDIF-Paper 1.0
Title: The Novel Vehicle Tax on Fine Particulate Matter Emissions
Author-Name: Nico Lukas Kasparetz
Author-Email: nico.kasparetz@uni-mannheim.de


Classification-JEL:  H23, L62, Q52, R48


Keywords: Vehicle Retirement, Particulate Matter Emissions, Vehicle Registration Fee,
Difference-in-Differences, Survival Analysis, Policy evaluation, The Netherlands, Vehicle
Taxes, Externalities, Redistributive Effects, Environmental Taxes and Subsidies

Abstract: Old diesel cars without modern emissions control technology substantially contribute
to air pollution by emitting high amounts of fine particulate matter, which is known to
be detrimental to human health. Periodic vehicle registration fees offer a potentially
powerful lever to speed up the retirement of old and polluting vehicles, yet little
empirical evidence exists on the matter. This paper analyzes how higher registration
fees for old and polluting diesel vehicles in the Netherlands accelerate their outflow
from the vehicle fleet. It leverages the staggered rollout of diesel particulate filters
as factory-fitted equipment to create quasi-random variation in pollution levels
across otherwise comparable diesel car models. By applying Synthetic Difference-in-Differences complemented with a hazard model, this paper establishes that the tax
increase on old and polluting cars is effective at reducing their numbers, albeit at
the cost of being a very regressive policy.

Note: 
Length: 96
Creation-Date: 2025-12
Revision-Date: 
File-URL: https://www.crctr224.de/research/discussion-papers/archive/dp721
File-Format: application/pdf
Handle: RePEc:bon:boncrc:CRCTR224_2025_721