00:01
So here we are thinking about the optimal gas tax, right? and i want to stress that there is no collective agreement, right? your question here suggests that economists believe all of the following.
00:21
I promise you that you can find economists who do not believe all of the following.
00:25
So i don't like the way the question is phrased because there's just no way.
00:30
The level of consensus that's being portrayed in this question among the profession is simply wrong, right? but there is some consensus, right? a, raise gas taxes, right? most people agree with this, right? i would say, again, there is agreement, but not total agreement, right? some economists believe, maybe even many economists, most economists believe that gas taxes should be raised.
00:59
But, not, you know, not all.
01:01
Definitely not all.
01:03
B, the optimal tax is approximately equal to $1 .48 per gallon.
01:14
I'm going to say there's agreement here, but there's not, right? now, your instructor is looking for you to say that, but this is just one empirical estimate, right? there is no like science like with say the force of gravity we can drop things and measure how fast they accelerate as they fall there's no way to estimate the optimal gas tax tax so precisely right it's not precise this is just right it's just an estimate and there have been many studies that have been done on the optimal gas tax but i suspect that this is a number that was introduced in class and you're just supposed to memorize it, even though it's wrong.
01:58
Because the key one here that i think is the right answer that your instructor is looking for is c, right? should be adjusted, adjusted to the market price.
02:15
And this, almost no economist would agree with that...