elmira zohourian

Environmental tax reform can be used in a fundamental transformation towards a green economy. Green tax may reduce the energy consumption and pollution emissions, as well as other economic benefits. This study mainly focused on the effects of green taxes on labor demand in Iranian industry sector during 1980 – 2015. Regarding the double dividend hypothesis, green taxes may improve the employment by substitution between labor and energy. Using CES production function, the elasticity of substitution between labor and energy is estimated 0.48 percent for industry sector. Then, the effect of green taxes on labor demand is investigated subject to government’s fixed budget constraint and labor demand function. The results show that green tax will have positive effects on employment in the industry. During the transfer of the labor tax system to the green tax system, the environment and employment may improve, without additional cost to the government and producer.