Short-term price effects of a carbon tax and implications for sectors competitiveness in small open economies

Asymmetric climate policies are expected to distort the level-playing field regarding international trade, singularly to the detriment of small open economies. The paper develops a flexible method that provides essential input regarding the design of offsetting measures. It builds on input-output analysis and standard input-output data to provide proxies for both carbon-intensity and trade-intensity. These are used to reckon the impact that such policies like carbon taxation are expected to have on international competitiveness. The method is then applied to the case of Belgium.