In general, using more congestion charges in crowded transportation networks — such as higher tolls during peak travel times in cities, and peak fees for airplane takeoff and landing slots — and using the proceeds to lower other taxes would make citizens on average better off.
Responses
© 2025. Kent A. Clark Center for Global Markets.
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Responses weighted by each expert's confidence
© 2025. Kent A. Clark Center for Global Markets.
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Participant |
University |
Vote |
Confidence |
Bio/Vote History |
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 Daron Acemoglu |
MIT | Bio/Vote History | ||
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 Alberto Alesina |
Harvard | Bio/Vote History | ||
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 Joseph Altonji |
Yale | Bio/Vote History | ||
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 Alan Auerbach |
Berkeley | Bio/Vote History | ||
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 David Autor |
MIT | Bio/Vote History | ||
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See "The High Cost of Free Parking" by Donald Shoup
-see background information here |
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 Katherine Baicker |
University of Chicago | Bio/Vote History | ||
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 Marianne Bertrand |
Chicago | Bio/Vote History | ||
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 Raj Chetty |
Harvard | Bio/Vote History | ||
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 Judith Chevalier |
Yale | Bio/Vote History | ||
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In general, the theory for pricing of congestion externalities would be analogous to pricing other externalities.
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 Janet Currie |
Princeton | Bio/Vote History | ||
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Congestion creates many externalities, including the health costs of pollution.
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 David Cutler |
Harvard | Bio/Vote History | ||
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Not all citizens ate better off. Huge geographic disparities.
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 Angus Deaton |
Princeton | Bio/Vote History | ||
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 Darrell Duffie |
Stanford | Bio/Vote History | ||
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Pricing at marginal value has benefits. A simple version of this is known as the first welfare theorem. The proposal goes toward this.
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 Aaron Edlin |
Berkeley | Did Not Answer | Bio/Vote History | |
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 Barry Eichengreen |
Berkeley | Bio/Vote History | ||
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 Ray Fair |
Yale | Bio/Vote History | ||
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 Pinelopi Goldberg |
Yale | Bio/Vote History | ||
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 Claudia Goldin |
Harvard | Bio/Vote History | ||
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Prices allocate goods more efficiently to consumers.
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 Austan Goolsbee |
Chicago | Bio/Vote History | ||
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but be careful about things with large compliance costs as a share of revenue. Waiting 15 mins to pay 20 cent toll is very dumb
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 Michael Greenstone |
University of Chicago | Bio/Vote History | ||
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 Robert Hall |
Stanford | Bio/Vote History | ||
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Congestion is a pure waste of resources, so eliminating it leaves lots of scope for improving standards of living
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 Bengt Holmström |
MIT | Bio/Vote History | ||
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Empirical evidence supports it. And theoretically it also makes sense.
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 Caroline Hoxby |
Stanford | Bio/Vote History | ||
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Yes, so long as congestion taxes are based on the TRUE social costs of congestion and really reduce other taxes. Let prices allocate demand
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 Kenneth Judd |
Stanford | Bio/Vote History | ||
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 Anil Kashyap |
Chicago Booth | Bio/Vote History | ||
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 Pete Klenow |
Stanford | Bio/Vote History | ||
 Edward Lazear |
Stanford | Bio/Vote History | ||
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The failure to price things like time results in overuse. Pricing has already proven to be effective in applicable situations, revenue aside
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 Jonathan Levin |
Stanford | Bio/Vote History | ||
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 William Nordhaus |
Yale | Bio/Vote History | ||
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 Maurice Obstfeld |
Berkeley | Bio/Vote History | ||
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There is a strong efficiency case but there still could be distributional consequences for some.
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 Cecilia Rouse |
Princeton | Bio/Vote History | ||
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Potentially but it would depend on the magnitude of the disutility associated with congestion for those with lower elasticities of demand.
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 Emmanuel Saez |
Berkeley | Bio/Vote History | ||
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 José Scheinkman |
Columbia University | Bio/Vote History | ||
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 Richard Schmalensee |
MIT | Bio/Vote History | ||
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 Hyun Song Shin |
Princeton | Bio/Vote History | ||
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 James Stock |
Harvard | Did Not Answer | Bio/Vote History | |
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 Nancy Stokey |
University of Chicago | Bio/Vote History | ||
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The only hard part is using the revenue in a reasonable way.
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 Richard Thaler |
Chicago Booth | Bio/Vote History | ||
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Of course the use of the tax revenue is key. Question: why do no GOP candidates favor such policies? Answer: more anti tax than pro market
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 Christopher Udry |
Northwestern | Bio/Vote History | ||
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Congestion fees can serve well to match private costs with social costs, as long as they are implemented with minimal transaction costs.
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 Luigi Zingales |
Chicago Booth | Bio/Vote History | ||
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