Suppose the government wants to punish a steel plants for polluting the air. Should the government levy a tax on the consumers or producers? Explain.
If government wants to impose tax due to pollution in the air, it will be imposed on consumers as well as producers based on their elasticity no matter on whom it is imposed. If elasticity of supply < elasticity of demand, producers will bear more of the tax and vice versa.
As pollution is caused by firm owner, government must impose tax on them. If there are plents of suppliers available in the market such that consumers do not have inelastic demand from a supplier where inelastic demand means that consumers will be ready to bear more of the tax burden but not ready to reduce quantity demanded, government should impose tax on producer which will reduce the price receive because consumer will shift to any other supplier.
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