WORKING PAPERS

• The Green Tax Pass-Through to Retail Fuel Prices (with N. Charalampidis) - Job Market Paper

  Abstract: Combining a natural experiment stemming from a legislative territorial reform with hourly information on retail fuel prices, we causally investigate the tax incidence of an excise environmental tax. We find a complete pass- through of the green tax to retail fuel prices for all gas stations situated on roads. The pass-through takes place within a week. This speed, however, is heterogeneous depending on the gas stations’ primary line of business: those associated with the low-price branch of oil companies pass the tax the fastest, followed by those associated with supermarkets, while those associated with the ordinary branch of oil companies are the slowest. Anticipatory price effects are uniquely exhibited by gas stations associated with the ordinary branch of oil companies. The level of competition has no effect on the magnitude of the pass-through, but a positive effect on its speed.

• Price and Composition of Consumption: The Shift towards Unprocessed Food during Recessions (with N. Charalampidis)

  Latest version: June 2026 - First version: September 2023  (previously circulated as Household processing effort over the business cycle: time and price implications)

  Abstract: Using scanner data and product-level information, we document the cyclicality of the processing level of household food consumption over the period 2007 to 2020 in the United States. We identify a novel strategy, the consumption reallocation, that consists in households altering their basket composition at the business cycle frequency by shifting it towards relatively less processed foods during economic downturns. The strategy is effective in reducing the price per calorie of the household basket. It was used by relatively lower income households in the Great and Covid-19 recessions, and by relatively higher income households only during the latter.

• Green Tax, Media and Inflation Expectations: Causal Evidence from France

  Abstract: This paper examines how media coverage of a prospective green tax increase affects short-term household inflation expectations. Using a difference-in-differences approach that leverages regional variation in green taxation and daily news from television and the press, I find that inflation expectations rise significantly following media coverage of a future fuel tax increase. This rise in inflation expectations precedes the tax implementation and its subsequent effect on fuel prices. It is short-lived, lasting two months. Its magnitude significantly exceeds the rise implied by the consumption share of fuels in the household basket and the expected fuel price increase.