Title: An ecological economics perspective on fiscal accounting: the case of land transport in Tenerife

Authors: Yeray Hernández-González

Addresses: Department of Applied Economics and Qualitative Methods, University of La Laguna, Camino de la Hornera s/n E-38850, La Laguna, Canary Islands, Spain

Abstract: The hypothesis tested in this paper is that land transport is a sector that is oversized in Tenerife. To demonstrate this, an exercise based on a fiscal accounting procedure is applied to land transport using an ecological economics approach. This fiscal accounting exercise is intended to demonstrate the differences between government revenue and the expenditure through the entire cycle of the transport sector. The results show that: a) expenditure surpasses revenue by nearly €21 million; b) road transport is indirectly subsidised (despite claims from the automotive sector); c) investments in the private transport sector are much larger than in public transport (despite claims from the government). The main limitation detected concerns data collection difficulties. The main contribution of this paper is the application of a fiscal accounting approach to one small island, Tenerife (Canary Islands).

Keywords: sustainability; ecological economics; fiscal accounting; private transport; public transport; government revenue; expenditure; Tenerife; land transport; road transport; indirectly subsidies; private sector investment; sustainable development; small islands.

DOI: 10.1504/IJSD.2016.078282

International Journal of Sustainable Development, 2016 Vol.19 No.3, pp.257 - 278

Received: 11 Nov 2014
Accepted: 28 Oct 2015

Published online: 14 Aug 2016 *

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