Taxing congestion of the space commons

Béal, S., Deschamps, M. and Moulin, H. (2020) Taxing congestion of the space commons. Acta Astronautica, 177, pp. 313-319. (doi: 10.1016/j.actaastro.2020.07.036)

Abstract

Satellites launched by independent spacefaring agencies and firms create space congestion and collision risk. Taking as benchmark the cost of a marginal reduction of the congestion rate, we discuss tax mechanisms financing a debris removal effort. We compare the non-cooperative equilibrium traffic when there is a tax on each new launch to recover cleanup costs, with the welfare optimal traffic under a centralized tax. We find that under the latter it is twice as easy to recover cleanup costs and increase traffic than under the former. We also show that a linear tax is twice as effective as a quadratic one.

• Item Type: Articles
• Status: Published
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Moulin, Professor Herve
• Authors: Béal, S., Deschamps, M., and Moulin, H.
• College/School: College of Social Sciences > Adam Smith Business School > Economics
• Journal Name: Acta Astronautica
• Publisher: Elsevier
• ISSN: 0094-5765
• ISSN (Online): 1879-2030
• Published Online: 01 August 2020
• Copyright Holders: Copyright © 2020 IAA
• First Published: First published in Acta Astronautica 177: 313-319
• Publisher Policy: Reproduced in accordance with the publisher copyright policy