Question A: A windfall tax on the excess profits of large oil and gas companies – with the revenue rebated to households – would be an efficient way to provide temporary relief for the average household in Ohio from rising energy costs.
Question A: A windfall tax on the excess profits of large oil and gas companies – with the revenue rebated to households – would be an efficient way to provide temporary relief for the average household in Ohio from rising energy costs.
| Economist | Institution | Opinion | Confidence | Comment |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jonathan Andreas | Bluffton University | Agree | 5 | I think it is more about political symbolism than efficient relief, but in theory it is likely to be a relatively efficient transfer of resources compared with most other kinds of tax-and-redistribution programs, depending upon the administrative costs. |
| Bizuayehu Bedane | Marietta College | Uncertain | 8 | |
| Kevin Egan | University of Toledo | Agree | 8 | I would prefer all subsidies that support all fossil fuels were eliminated and anti-trust laws enforced so no one company has too much market power. |
| Kenneth Fah | Ohio Dominican University | Agree | 8 | |
| Hasan Faruq | Xavier University | Agree | 9 | |
| Bob Gitter | Ohio Wesleyan University | Disagree | 9 | With a limited supply of crude and refinery capacity, we don’t want to help people buy more. In times of inflation, we don’t need to stimulate demand, either. |
| Nancy Haskell | University of Dayton | Uncertain | 5 | |
| Paul Holmes | Ashland University | Strongly Agree | 8 | |
| Michael Jones | University of Cincinnati | Strongly Disagree | 5 | The best way to combat rising energy costs is to lower the cost of energy production. A windfall tax does the opposite. A tax makes it more expensive, not less expensive, to supply energy to the market. |
| Charles Kroncke | Mount Saint Joseph University | Agree | 9 | |
| Trevon Logan | Ohio State University | Uncertain | 7 | |
| Michael Myler | University of Mount Union | Strongly Agree | 10 | Let the market determine the price of goods. Reimburse the consumers so that they could buy the same amount of the high-priced good (gasoline/fuel oil/electricity) if they choose to spend their money that way. Micro theory suggests consumers will buy less of the high-priced good and spend a portion of the reimbursement on other goods. |
| Joe Nowakowski | Muskingum University | Agree | 8 | |
| Lewis Sage | Baldwin Wallace University | Strongly Agree | 10 | |
| Dean Snyder | Antioch College | Agree | 7 | We can look to the ongoing situation in France as an example. The French energy giant TotalEnergies reduced prices at the pump in response to the possibility of a windfall profit tax. The real threat of a windfall tax may be an effective way to reduce consumer energy prices. |
| Kay E. Strong | Independent | Disagree | 8 | Discussion of windfall taxes on "excess" oil and gas company profits has already brought down the price at the pump! The kicker on this proposal is defining what is excess profit and what is normal profits. While rebating revenue to households has short term value, perhaps, using the excess gains to support green energy development would be in the long term interest of households. |
| Melissa thomasson | Miami University | Uncertain | 5 | |
| Ejindu Ume | Miami University | Agree | 7 | |
| Andy Welki | John Carroll University | Disagree | 7 | |
| Kathryn Wilson | Kent State University | Uncertain | 3 | In terms of efficiency, the primary question would be what effect does the tax have on future decisions of oil and gas companies. If it does not change behavior, then it would be an efficient way to provide temporary relief. However, if it causes these companies to change their future behavior, then the efficiency implications are not as clear. |
| Rachel Wilson | Wittenberg University | Disagree | 7 |