IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/ntj/journl/v47y1994i4p731-46.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Is a Value Added Tax Regressive? Annual Versus Lifetime Incidence Measures

Author

Listed:
  • Caspersen, Erik
  • Metcalf, Gilbert E.

Abstract

Measures the lifetime incidence of VAT using data from Panel Study of Income Dynamics and the Consumer Expenditure Survey.

Suggested Citation

  • Caspersen, Erik & Metcalf, Gilbert E., 1994. "Is a Value Added Tax Regressive? Annual Versus Lifetime Incidence Measures," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association;National Tax Journal, vol. 47(4), pages 731-746, December.
  • Handle: RePEc:ntj:journl:v:47:y:1994:i:4:p:731-46
    DOI: 10.1086/NTJ41789105
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1086/NTJ41789105
    Download Restriction: Access is restricted to subscribers and members of the National Tax Association.

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1086/NTJ41789105
    Download Restriction: Access is restricted to subscribers and members of the National Tax Association.

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1086/NTJ41789105?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 look for a different version below or search for a different version of it.

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Poterba, James M, 1989. "Lifetime Incidence and the Distributional Burden of Excise Taxes," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 79(2), pages 325-330, May.
    2. James M. Poterba, 1991. "Is the Gasoline Tax Regressive?," NBER Chapters, in: Tax Policy and the Economy, Volume 5, pages 145-164, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    3. Donald O. Parsons, 1978. "The Autocorrelation of Earnings, Human Wealth Inequality, and Income Contingent Loans," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 92(4), pages 551-569.
    4. Benjamin Eden & Ariél Pakes, 1981. "On Measuring the Variance-Age Profile of Lifetime Earnings," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 48(3), pages 385-394.
    5. Lyon, Andrew B & Schwab, Robert M, 1995. "Consumption Taxes in a Life-Cycle Framework: Are Sin Taxes Regressive?," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 77(3), pages 389-406, August.
    6. Suits, Daniel B, 1977. "Measurement of Tax Progressivity," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 67(4), pages 747-752, September.
    7. Lillard, Lee A, 1977. "Inequality: Earnings vs. Human Wealth," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 67(2), pages 42-53, March.
    8. Milton Friedman, 1957. "A Theory of the Consumption Function," NBER Books, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc, number frie57-1.
    9. Abowd, John M & Card, David, 1989. "On the Covariance Structure of Earnings and Hours Changes," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 57(2), pages 411-445, March.
    10. Brashares, Edith & Speyrer, Janet Furman & Carlson, George N., 1988. "Distributional Aspects of a Federal Value-Added Tax," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association, vol. 41(2), pages 155-74, June.
    11. David M. Cutler & Lawrence F. Katz, 1991. "Macroeconomic Performance and the Disadvantaged," Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, Economic Studies Program, The Brookings Institution, vol. 22(2), pages 1-74.
    12. Joshua D. Angrist & Alan B. Keueger, 1991. "Does Compulsory School Attendance Affect Schooling and Earnings?," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 106(4), pages 979-1014.
    13. Charles L. Ballard & John Karl Scholz & John B. Shoven, 1987. "The Value-Added Tax: A General Equilibrium Look at Its Efficiency and Incidence," NBER Chapters, in: The Effects of Taxation on Capital Accumulation, pages 445-480, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    14. Griliches, Zvi, 1977. "Estimating the Returns to Schooling: Some Econometric Problems," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 45(1), pages 1-22, January.
    15. Brashares, Edith & Speyrer, Janet Furman & Carlson, George N., 1988. "Distributional Aspects of a Federal Value-Added Tax," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association;National Tax Journal, vol. 41(2), pages 155-174, June.
    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. Bachas, Pierre & Gadenne, Lucie & Jensen, Anders, 2020. "Informality, Consumption Taxes and Redistribution," The Warwick Economics Research Paper Series (TWERPS) 1277, University of Warwick, Department of Economics.
    2. Parry, Ian & Walls, Margaret & Sigman, Hilary & Williams III, Roberton, 2005. "The Incidence of Pollution Control Policies," RFF Working Paper Series dp-05-24, Resources for the Future.
    3. Bengtsson, Niklas & Holmlund, Bertil & Waldenström, Daniel, 2012. "Lifetime versus Annual Tax Progressivity: Sweden, 1968–2009," IZA Discussion Papers 6641, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    4. Parry, Ian W. H., 2004. "Are emissions permits regressive?," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 47(2), pages 364-387, March.
    5. Florian Wöhlbier & Caterina Astarita & Gilles Mourre, 2014. "Consolidation on the revenue side and growth-friendly tax structures: an indicator based approach," European Economy - Economic Papers 2008 - 2015 513, Directorate General Economic and Financial Affairs (DG ECFIN), European Commission.
    6. Artur Świstak & Sebastian Wawrzak & Agnieszka Alińska, 2015. "In pursuit of tax equity: lessons from VAT rate structure adjustment in Poland," Financial Theory and Practice, Institute of Public Finance, vol. 39(2), pages 115-137.
    7. Stanislav Klazar & Barbora Slintáková & Slavomíra Svátková & Martin Zelený, 2007. "Incidence of the VAT Rates Harmonisation in the Czech Republic [Dopad harmonizace sazeb DPH v ČR]," Acta Oeconomica Pragensia, Prague University of Economics and Business, vol. 2007(1), pages 45-56.
    8. Francesca Gastaldi & Paolo Liberati & Elena Pisano & Simone Tedeschi, 2017. "Regressivity-Reducing VAT Reforms," International Journal of Microsimulation, International Microsimulation Association, vol. 10(1), pages 39-72.
    9. Petr Janský & Klára Kalíšková & Daniel Münich, 2016. "Does the Czech Tax and Benefit System Contribute to One of Europe’s Lowest Levels of Relative Income Poverty and Inequality?," Eastern European Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 54(3), pages 191-207, May.
    10. Daniel R. Feenberg & Andrew W. Mitrusi & James M. Poterba, 1997. "Distributional Effects of Adopting a National Retail Sales Tax," NBER Chapters, in: Tax Policy and the Economy, Volume 11, pages 49-90, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    11. Đorđević Marina, 2015. "Satisfying the Principle of Fairness in Consumption Tax," Economic Themes, Sciendo, vol. 53(1), pages 37-50, March.
    12. repec:ijm:journl:v109:y:2017:i:1:p:39-72 is not listed on IDEAS
    13. William G. Gale & Samuel Brown, 2013. "Tax Reform for Growth, Equity, and Revenue," Public Finance Review, , vol. 41(6), pages 721-754, November.
    14. Yingxu Kuang & Ted Englebrecht & Otis W. Gilley, 2011. "A Distributional Analysis of the FairTax Plan: Annual and Lifetime Income Considerations," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 78(2), pages 358-381, October.
    15. Hooper, Paul & Smith, Karen A., 1997. "A value-added tax in the U.S.: An argument in favor," Business Horizons, Elsevier, vol. 40(3), pages 78-83.
    16. Arsić, Milojko & Altiparmakov, Nikola, 2013. "Equity aspects of VAT in emerging European countries: A case study of Serbia," Economic Systems, Elsevier, vol. 37(2), pages 171-186.
    17. repec:ipf:finteo:v:39:y:2015:i:3:p:115-137 is not listed on IDEAS
    18. Mathur, Aparna & Morris, Adele C., 2014. "Distributional effects of a carbon tax in broader U.S. fiscal reform," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 66(C), pages 326-334.
    19. Hammar, Henrik & Jagers, Sverker C., 2007. "What is a fair CO2 tax increase? On fair emission reductions in the transport sector," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 61(2-3), pages 377-387, March.
    20. Suresh Narayanan, 2014. "The Impact Of The Goods And Services Tax (Gst) In Malaysia: Lessons From Experiences Elsewhere (A Note)," The Singapore Economic Review (SER), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 59(02), pages 1-15.

    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. Gilbert E. Metcalf, 1994. "Life Cycle versus Annual Perspectives on the Incidence of a Value Added Tax," NBER Chapters, in: Tax Policy and the Economy, Volume 8, pages 45-64, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    2. Lyon, Andrew B & Schwab, Robert M, 1995. "Consumption Taxes in a Life-Cycle Framework: Are Sin Taxes Regressive?," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 77(3), pages 389-406, August.
    3. Nils Ohlendorf & Michael Jakob & Jan Christoph Minx & Carsten Schröder & Jan Christoph Steckel, 2021. "Distributional Impacts of Carbon Pricing: A Meta-Analysis," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 78(1), pages 1-42, January.
    4. Fullerton, Don & Metcalf, Gilbert E., 2002. "Tax incidence," Handbook of Public Economics, in: A. J. Auerbach & M. Feldstein (ed.), Handbook of Public Economics, edition 1, volume 4, chapter 26, pages 1787-1872, Elsevier.
    5. Rausch, Sebastian & Metcalf, Gilbert E. & Reilly, John M., 2011. "Distributional impacts of carbon pricing: A general equilibrium approach with micro-data for households," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 33(S1), pages 20-33.
    6. Walls, Margaret & Hanson, Jean, 1996. "Distributional Impacts of an Environmental Tax Shift: The Case of Motor Vehicle Emissions Taxes," Discussion Papers 10895, Resources for the Future.
    7. Nils Ohlendorf & Michael Jakob & Jan Christoph Minx & Carsten Schröder & Jan Christoph Steckel, 2018. "Distributional Impacts of Climate Mitigation Policies - a Meta-Analysis," Discussion Papers of DIW Berlin 1776, DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research.
    8. Fehr, Hans, 1999. "Welfare Effects of Dynamic Tax Reforms," Beiträge zur Finanzwissenschaft, Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen, edition 1, volume 5, number urn:isbn:9783161470165, September.
    9. Rausch Sebastian & Metcalf Gilbert E. & Reilly John M & Paltsev Sergey, 2010. "Distributional Implications of Alternative U.S. Greenhouse Gas Control Measures," The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 10(2), pages 1-46, July.
    10. Schmitz, Christoph & Biewald, Anne & Lotze-Campen, Hermann & Popp, Alexander, 2011. "Increased Agricultural Trade and its Impacts on Food System, Land-use and Greenhouse Gas Emissions," Conference papers 332165, Purdue University, Center for Global Trade Analysis, Global Trade Analysis Project.
    11. Huggett, Mark & Ventura, Gustavo & Yaron, Amir, 2006. "Human capital and earnings distribution dynamics," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 53(2), pages 265-290, March.
    12. William N. Evans & Jeanne S. Ringel & Diana Stech, 1999. "Tobacco Taxes and Public Policy to Discourage Smoking," NBER Chapters, in: Tax Policy and the Economy, Volume 13, pages 1-56, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    13. Aurélien Saussay, 2019. "Dynamic heterogeneity: rational habits and the heterogeneity of household responses to gasoline prices," Post-Print hal-03632598, HAL.
    14. Fullerton Don & Heutel Garth, 2011. "Analytical General Equilibrium Effects of Energy Policy on Output and Factor Prices," The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 10(2), pages 1-26, January.
    15. Gilbert E. Metcalf, 1993. "The Lifetime Incidence of State and Local Taxes: Measuring Changes During the 1980s," NBER Working Papers 4252, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    16. Brant Abbott & Giovanni Gallipoli, 2018. "Human Capital Inequality: Empirical Evidence," Working Papers 2018-085, Human Capital and Economic Opportunity Working Group.
    17. Duclos, Jean-Yves, 1998. "Social evaluation functions, economic isolation and the Suits index of progressivity," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 69(1), pages 103-121, July.
    18. Blackman, Allen & Osakwe, Rebecca & Alpizar, Francisco, 2010. "Fuel tax incidence in developing countries: The case of Costa Rica," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 38(5), pages 2208-2215, May.
    19. Agostini, Claudio A. & Jiménez, Johanna, 2015. "The distributional incidence of the gasoline tax in Chile," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 85(C), pages 243-252.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • H20 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - General
    • H22 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Incidence

    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:ntj:journl:v:47:y:1994:i:4:p:731-46. 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: The University of Chicago Press (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.ntanet.org/ .

    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.