This paper studies the fiscal incidence of a fiscal reform consisting of a reduction in employers' social insurance contributions financed by a tax based on the value added. In a closed economy with two sectors calibrated thanks to the French National Accounts, a "social VAT" leads to a rise in...

We use Luxembourg Income Study data to compare the progressivity of the tax structure in the U.S. and Europe. While our study supports the arguments of other scholars that the US has more progressive taxes than the continental or social democratic countries, we also present the following...

Studying very detailed micro data collected around two different VAT reforms in Europe, we show that tax incidence is heavily dependent on the characteristics of the price-setting firms. The reforms generated bimodal price-change distributions; nearly all independent restaurants left prices...

Many countries levy reduced-rate indirect taxes on newspapers, with proclaimed policy goals of stimulating investment in journalism and ensuring low newspaper prices. However, by taking into account the fact that the media industry operates in two-sided markets, we find the paradoxical result...

Many countries levy reduced-rate indirect taxes on newspapers, with proclaimed policy goals of stimulating investment in journalism and ensuring low newspaper prices. However, by taking into account the fact that the media industry operates in two-sided markets, we find the paradoxical result...

The “pre-collection” of tax on imputed consumption generated by owner-occupied housing plays a crucial role in both consumption tax theory and real-world tax regimes. However, even under current VAT systems with the widest tax bases, the taxation of imputed housing consumption is incomplete...

This paper examines how sales taxation on Internet purchases could affect the decision to buy oods over the Internet. The results appear robust with respect to unobserved technological sophistication or other alternative explanations. The tax effect is found to be significant and its magnitude...

This paper studies the fiscal incidence of a fiscal reform consisting of a reduction in employers' social insurance contributions financed by a tax based on the value added. In a closed economy with two sectors calibrated thanks to the French National Accounts, a "social VAT" leads to a rise in...

Consumption tax rates targeted at specific sectors are often reformed without empirical knowledge about the efficiency of these policies. This paper sheds light on the efficiency issue, the potential for welfare improving reform, by studying the incidence of value added taxes (VAT) on prices and...

A decade ago, several Canadian provinces replaced retail sales taxes by value-added taxes. This paper estimates the effects of this tax substitution on consumer prices in the reforming provinces. Consistent with theory, we find that the resulting effective tax rate changes were shifted forward...