ECONOMICAL AND FISCAL INSTRUMENTS OF ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY: A THEORIC EXAMINATION ON ENVRINMENTAL TAXES

Abstract

From the second half of the twentieth century, the states seem to have created environmental policies in order to cope with the environmental issues that are affecting them. Environmental policy can be defined briefly as a policy set that includes the environmental principles and objectives of states. The ability to achieve the objectives set out in environmental policy in an intangible way depends on the development of policy instruments that are in terms of these objectives. Environmental policy instruments can be divided into two main groups; administrative instruments based on the state's command authority and economic and financial instruments. Economical and fiscal instruments providing economic incentives on economic units that aim to change the behavior of both producers and consumers. It can be said that the most favored application instrument among the economic and fiscal instruments are the environmental taxes. The aim of this study is to examine theoretically the environmental taxes which find wide application in environmental policies. The characteristics, types, sources, advantages and disadvantages of environmental taxes and their application problems are studied from a theoretical point of view.