Does environmental tax kill employment? Evidence from OECD and non-OECD countries

The simultaneous reduction of two imbalances, the under-exploitation of human resources and the over -exploitation of natural resources, has become an objective of economic policy in the landscape of implement-ing sustainable development. The objective of this study is to determine the effects of environmental taxes on employment in a sample of 94 countries with different levels of development, both within and outside the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development). More specifically, the study examines the influence of the environmental tax on total employment, female employment and male employment. After applying several estimation techniques for panel data such as fixed effects, Driscoll and Kraay, kiviet (2020),Generalised Method of Moments in system (GMMs), Lewbel two stage least square (Lewbel 2SLS), mediating and moderating effects, the results are very interesting and revealing. They are of threefold importance. First, the environmental tax has a positive and significant effect on total employment, implying that environmental policies promote the emergence of new sectors of activity or types of employment. Secondly, in terms of women's employment, it can be seen that they benefit less from these new jobs following the introduction of the environmental tax. Thirdly, the envi-ronmental tax has had positive and significant effects on the employment of men. A green economy policy whose instruments use environmental protection to develop employment should be adopted by governments. Policies to facilitate and reduce discrimination in women's employment must be linked to this green economy policy.