Highway Mileage Tax

Wow! I found this interesting:

Greg Mankiw's Blog: A Strange Pigovian Idea in Oregon

Democratic Gov. Theodore R. Kulongoski's upcoming budget calls for a highway tax based on mileage, not gasoline purchases.A state task force will look at equipping every new vehicle in Oregon with a Global Positioning System to record every mile driven and where. Motorists would pay at the gas pump based on how much they drove, no matter how fuel-frugal their vehicle.

Prof Mankiw says: "(On the other hand,) as long as politicians and the public are concerned about fuel efficiency and carbon emissions, as they seem to be, it makes more sense to stick to the more standard gasoline tax."

I have to admit that this highway-milage-based tax idea doesn't suit their purpose, which I suppose to be a solution for fuel efficiency and carbon emissions. Even so, it reminds me of Freakonomics by Steven D. Levitt. Combining technology and microeconomics is a new frontier in effective lawmaking.

Microeconomics is fun!