A bibliometric analysis of research on carbon tax from 1989 to 2014

As one of the most cost-effective means of emission reduction, carbon tax has attracted considerable attention from economists and international organizations and has led to a large number of related research. Using the bibliometric method, this paper characterizes the carbon tax literature from 1989 to 2014 based on the Network Database Platform of Web of Science. The results indicate that the USA occupies a leading position in the carbon tax field. The Vrije University Amsterdam, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Stanford University were the most productive research institutes. Energy Policy (143) has been the most productive journal followed by Energy Economics (44) and Energy (38). In general, the cooperation of authors, institutes and nations are continuing to strengthen; however, the growth rate at the author level was significantly higher than the others. In addition, the current key research areas in the carbon tax field based on Co-Keyword Analysis are as follows: climate change and relevant policy, carbon emissions trading, socio-economic effects of carbon tax, renewable energy, endogenous technological change and carbon capture and storage. The results of this paper will help researchers grasp the current research in the carbon tax field but also provide a supporting role for future work.