The Pigou Club

As readers of this blog know, I am a fan of Pigovian taxes. These taxes allow us to correct market failures without heavy-handed regulations, while raising government revenue so we can reduce more distortionary forms of taxation.

I am not alone in this view. Here are a list of some economists and pundits who at times have advocated higher gasoline taxes or carbon taxes:

• Greg Mankiw (Fortune 5/24/99, WSJ 1/3/06, 5/31/06)
• Bill Nordhaus (Foreign Policy in Focus 3/27/06)
• Martin Feldstein (WSJ 6/4/92)
• Gary Becker (Businessweek 5/27/02)
• Robert Frank (NY Times 2/16/06, 6/8/06)
• Greg Easterbrook (NY Times 5/25/04)
• John Tierney (NY Times 10/4/05, 5/23/06)
• Jonathan Rauch (National Journal 2/9/02)
• Thomas Friedman (NY Times 9/21/05, 2/8/06, 6/16/06)
• Joe Klein (Time 5/7/06)

I call this group the Pigou Club. We are looking for more members.

If commentators know of other economists and pundits who have publicly advocated higher Pigovian taxes, please let me know, including the relevant citation.