Energy Cost Pass-Through in U.S. Manufacturing: Estimates and Implications for Carbon Taxes

Abstract

We study how changes in energy input costs for U.S. manufacturers affect the relative welfare of manufacturing producers and consumers (i.e., incidence). We also develop a methodology to estimate the incidence of input taxes which accounts for incomplete pass-through, imperfect competition, and substitution amongst inputs. For the several industries we study, 70 percent of energy price-driven changes in input costs get passed through to consumers in the short- to medium-run. The share of the welfare cost that consumers bear is 25-75 percent smaller (and the share producers bear is larger) than models featuring complete pass-through and perfect competition would suggest. (This abstract was borrowed from another version of this item.)