Abstract
This paper examines the effectiveness of implementing carbon taxes to reduce carbon dioxide emissions from transport. Using the system Generalized Method of Moments estimator, we utilize cross-country analysis for the first time to study the impact of carbon taxes on the composition of petrol versus diesel passenger cars sold in 17 countries over the period 2013−2017. The results suggest that increasing carbon taxes affects consumer behavior, causing a significant shift from petrol to diesel fuel vehicles, controlling for factors such as the price of passenger cars, fuel price, interest rates, income level, population density, inflation, and vehicle stock.