Environmental taxes in ensuring national security: A structural optimization model

Abstract

The purpose of the article is to assess the optimal ratio of environmental taxes in the context of national security. National security is defined as a complex parameter of indicators of economic, environmental and energy security, sensitive to the impact of environmental taxation, according to the method of Kolmogorov-Gabor. The environmental taxes with the greatest impact on the three identified components of national security have been selected. The sample of the study consisted of six European countries (Belgium, France, Austria; Finland and United Kingdom). The study covers the time period between 1994-2019. The optimization model of the structure of environmental taxes, which provides maximization of the level of national security, is built using the simplex method and the method of the general reduced gradient. The calculations allowed determining the optimal structural ratios of environmental taxes within each country thatachieves the maximum level of integrated national security. Besides, the strategic guidelines for adjusting national environmental taxation systems were developed to ensure national security.