Abstract

RIUS, Andrés. Public Services and Green Tax Reforms in Latin America: Opportunities and Challenges. Gest. polít. pública [online]. 2016, vol.25, n.1, pp.245-297. ISSN 1405-1079.

The article introduces the concept of green tax reforms ("reforma fiscal ambiental") and examines its pertinence for the region, based on the analysis of the opportunities and difficulties for implementing those reforms in two essential public services: the provision of electric power and urban public transportation. Those services are analyzed in their specificities but are considered illustrative of more general situations. After a conventional analysis of objectives and instruments, it is shown that the markets are interdependent and that environmental goals are cross-cutting. From those methodological principles, the shortcomings of the public policies conceived like parallel and autonomous channels become more obvious. Although there seem to be spaces for fiscal innovations with environmental objectives, the paper analyzes the distribution and the competitiveness challenges, and the political economy and institutionalist issues; the results make possible to situate the energy and public transportation agendas in a more general and productive context.

Keywords : environmental policy; consumers and consumption; public services.