IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/ecmode/v30y2013icp366-374.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Is the value added tax a useful macroeconomic stabilization instrument?

Author

Listed:
  • Claus, Iris

Abstract

The value added tax (VAT) has been proposed as a macroeconomic stabilization instrument. This paper considers some practical implications of a variable VAT. It then develops a dynamic general equilibrium model to assess its usefulness as a stabilization instrument. A variable rate VAT would no longer be less distortionary than other taxes. It would distort between current and future consumption, i.e. savings and investment decisions, and hence raise the economic costs of taxation. Moreover, a variable VAT would be less effective in dampening business cycles than the conventional stabilization tool, an interest rate. This is because of the additional adverse supply effects. A change in the interest rate affects this period's savings and investment decisions, whereas a variable VAT rate would influence savings and investment decisions over time. A variable VAT rate is therefore unlikely to be a useful stabilization instrument.

Suggested Citation

  • Claus, Iris, 2013. "Is the value added tax a useful macroeconomic stabilization instrument?," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 30(C), pages 366-374.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:ecmode:v:30:y:2013:i:c:p:366-374
    DOI: 10.1016/j.econmod.2012.08.025
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0264999312002672
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.econmod.2012.08.025?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. McCallum, Bennett T. & Nelson, Edward, 1999. "Nominal income targeting in an open-economy optimizing model," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 43(3), pages 553-578, June.
    2. McCallum, Bennett T & Nelson, Edward, 2000. "Monetary Policy for an Open Economy: An Alternative Framework with Optimizing Agents and Sticky Prices," Oxford Review of Economic Policy, Oxford University Press and Oxford Review of Economic Policy Limited, vol. 16(4), pages 74-91, Winter.
    3. John W. Diamond & George R. Zodrow (ed.), 2008. "Fundamental Tax Reform: Issues, Choices, and Implications," MIT Press Books, The MIT Press, edition 1, volume 1, number 0262042479, December.
    4. Maurice Obstfeld & Kenneth S. Rogoff, 1996. "Foundations of International Macroeconomics," MIT Press Books, The MIT Press, edition 1, volume 1, number 0262150476, December.
    5. A. Mitchell Polinsky & Steven Shavell (ed.), 2007. "Handbook of Law and Economics," Handbook of Law and Economics, Elsevier, edition 1, volume 2, number 2.
    6. Julia Hall & Grant Scobie, 2005. "Capital Shallowness: A Problem for New Zealand?," Treasury Working Paper Series 05/05, New Zealand Treasury.
    7. Calvo, Guillermo A., 1983. "Staggered prices in a utility-maximizing framework," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 12(3), pages 383-398, September.
    8. Martin Feldstein, 2009. "Rethinking the Role of Fiscal Policy," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 99(2), pages 556-559, May.
    9. Bob Buckle & Aaron Drew, 2006. "Testing stabilisation policy limits in a small open economy: editor's summary of a macroeconomic policy forum," Reserve Bank of New Zealand Bulletin, Reserve Bank of New Zealand, vol. 69, pages 1-9, December.
    10. Atkinson, A. B. & Stiglitz, J. E., 1976. "The design of tax structure: Direct versus indirect taxation," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 6(1-2), pages 55-75.
    11. A. Mitchell Polinsky & Steven Shavell (ed.), 2007. "Handbook of Law and Economics," Handbook of Law and Economics, Elsevier, edition 1, volume 1, number 1.
    12. Taylor, John B., 1993. "Discretion versus policy rules in practice," Carnegie-Rochester Conference Series on Public Policy, Elsevier, vol. 39(1), pages 195-214, December.
    13. Marimon, Ramon & Scott, Andrew (ed.), 1999. "Computational Methods for the Study of Dynamic Economies," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780198294979.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Marius Clemens & Werner Röger, 2021. "Temporary VAT Reduction during the Lockdown," Discussion Papers of DIW Berlin 1944, DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research.
    2. Bhattarai, Keshab & Benjasak, Chonlakan, 2021. "Growth and redistribution impacts of income taxes in the Thai Economy: A dynamic CGE analysis," The Journal of Economic Asymmetries, Elsevier, vol. 23(C).
    3. Marius Clemens & Werner Röger, 2022. "Durable Consumption, Limited VAT Pass-Through and Stabilization Effects of Temporary VAT Changes," Discussion Papers of DIW Berlin 2004, DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research.
    4. Clemens, Marius & Röger, Werner, 2021. "Temporary VAT Reduction during the Lockdown - Evidence from Germany," VfS Annual Conference 2021 (Virtual Conference): Climate Economics 242459, Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association.
    5. Renyan Mu & Nigatu Mengesha Fentaw & Lu Zhang, 2022. "The Impacts of Value-Added Tax Audit on Tax Revenue Performance: The Mediating Role of Electronics Tax System, Evidence from the Amhara Region, Ethiopia," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(10), pages 1-22, May.
    6. Hodzic, Sabina & Celebi, Hulya, 2017. "Value-Added Tax And Its Efficiency: Eu–28 And Turkey," UTMS Journal of Economics, University of Tourism and Management, Skopje, Macedonia, vol. 8(2), pages 79-90.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Iris Claus & Kunhong Kim, 2006. "Credit Market Frictions In An Open Economy," CAMA Working Papers 2006-04, Centre for Applied Macroeconomic Analysis, Crawford School of Public Policy, The Australian National University.
    2. Edda Claus & Iris Claus, 2007. "Transmitting Shocks To The Economy: The Contribution Of Interest And Exchange Rates And The Credit Channel," CAMA Working Papers 2007-03, Centre for Applied Macroeconomic Analysis, Crawford School of Public Policy, The Australian National University.
    3. Claus, Iris, 2011. "Inside the black box: How important is the credit channel relative to the interest and exchange rate channels?," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 28(1), pages 1-12.
    4. Iris Claus & Brandon Sloan, 2008. "VARIABLE GSTl A TOOL FOR MONETARY POLICY IN NEW ZEALAND?," CAMA Working Papers 2008-30, Centre for Applied Macroeconomic Analysis, Crawford School of Public Policy, The Australian National University.
    5. Claus, Iris, 2011. "The effects of asymmetric information between borrowers and lenders in an open economy," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 30(5), pages 796-816, September.
    6. Smets, Frank & Wouters, Raf, 2002. "Openness, imperfect exchange rate pass-through and monetary policy," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 49(5), pages 947-981, July.
    7. Iris Claus, 2007. "The Effects of Bank Lending in an Open Economy," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 39(5), pages 1213-1243, August.
    8. Richard Dennis, 2003. "Exploring the Role of the Real Exchange Rate in Australian Monetary Policy," The Economic Record, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 79(244), pages 20-38, March.
    9. Kollmann, Robert, 2002. "Monetary policy rules in the open economy: effects on welfare and business cycles," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 49(5), pages 989-1015, July.
    10. Michael Paetz, 2007. "Robust Control and Persistence in the New Keynesian Economy," Quantitative Macroeconomics Working Papers 20711, Hamburg University, Department of Economics.
    11. Kollmann, Robert, 2003. "Monetary Policy Rules in an Interdependent World," CEPR Discussion Papers 4012, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    12. Batini, Nicoletta & Harrison, Richard & Millard, Stephen P., 2003. "Monetary policy rules for an open economy," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 27(11-12), pages 2059-2094, September.
    13. Kollmann, Robert, 2002. "Monetary Policy Rules in a Two-Country World," MPRA Paper 70347, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    14. McCallum, Bennett T & Nelson, Edward, 2000. "Monetary Policy for an Open Economy: An Alternative Framework with Optimizing Agents and Sticky Prices," Oxford Review of Economic Policy, Oxford University Press and Oxford Review of Economic Policy Limited, vol. 16(4), pages 74-91, Winter.
    15. Holtemöller, Oliver, 2007. "The Effects of Joining a Monetary Union on Output and Inflation Variability in Accession Countries," MPRA Paper 8633, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    16. Iris Claus, 2005. "Financial Intermedication And The Cost Of Capital In An Open Economy," CAMA Working Papers 2005-18, Centre for Applied Macroeconomic Analysis, Crawford School of Public Policy, The Australian National University.
    17. Ali Dib, 2011. "Monetary Policy in Estimated Models of Small Open and Closed Economies," Open Economies Review, Springer, vol. 22(5), pages 769-796, November.
    18. Rhee, Hyuk-Jae & Song, Jeongseok, 2018. "Exchange Rate Pass-through, Nominal Wage Rigidities, and Monetary Policy in a Small Open Economy," East Asian Economic Review, Korea Institute for International Economic Policy, vol. 22(3), pages 337-370, September.
    19. Fujiwara, Ippei & Hara, Naoko & Hirose, Yasuo & Teranishi, Yuki, 2005. "The Japanese Economic Model (JEM)," Monetary and Economic Studies, Institute for Monetary and Economic Studies, Bank of Japan, vol. 23(2), pages 61-142, May.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Macroeconomic stabilization; Value added tax; Interest rate; Economic costs of taxation;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • E32 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Prices, Business Fluctuations, and Cycles - - - Business Fluctuations; Cycles
    • E52 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Monetary Policy, Central Banking, and the Supply of Money and Credit - - - Monetary Policy

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:ecmode:v:30:y:2013:i:c:p:366-374. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/inca/30411 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.