IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/pubfin/v12y1984i4p500-511.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Specific Taxes, Product Quality, and Rate-Revenue Analysis

Author

Listed:
  • Cecil E. Bohanon
  • T. Norman Van Cott

Abstract

The effect that specific taxes have on product quality has been a question of interest to economists over the last few years. The problem arises because while goods and services are multidimensional in terms of utility generating characteristics, specific taxes are almost always levied on just one of the characteristics. The effect of quality adjustment on tax revenue has not yet been examined in any detail. Quality adjustment is no doubt a change that occurs over a longer-run time frame. Heretofore, the only attempts at adding a temporal dimension to rate-revenue analysis distinguish between the short run and long run in terms of supply and demand elasticities. In the previous analysis the tax rate at which revenue is maximized and the tax rate at which revenue reaches zero are both lower in the long run. What makes the analysis presented here interesting is that when product quality accounts for the intertemporal distinction, the revenue maximizing tax rate and the tax rate that yields zero revenue are both higher in the long run.

Suggested Citation

  • Cecil E. Bohanon & T. Norman Van Cott, 1984. "Specific Taxes, Product Quality, and Rate-Revenue Analysis," Public Finance Review, , vol. 12(4), pages 500-511, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:pubfin:v:12:y:1984:i:4:p:500-511
    DOI: 10.1177/109114218401200407
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/109114218401200407
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/109114218401200407?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
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Formby, John P & Layson, Stephen & Smith, W James, 1982. "The Law of Demand, Positive Sloping Marginal Revenue, and Multiple Profit Equilibria," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 20(2), pages 303-311, April.
    2. Barzel, Yoram, 1976. "An Alternative Approach to the Analysis of Taxation," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 84(6), pages 1177-1197, December.
    3. Leffler, Keith B, 1982. "Ambiguous Changes in Product Quality," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 72(5), pages 956-967, December.
    4. Buchanan, James M & Lee, Dwight R, 1982. "Tax Rates and Tax Revenues in Political Equilibrium: Some Simple Analytics," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 20(3), pages 344-354, July.
    5. Falvey, Rodney E, 1979. "The Composition of Trade within Import-restricted Product Categories," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 87(5), pages 1105-1114, October.
    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. Blum, Bianca, 2018. "Ausgestaltung einer Steuerpolitik zur Förderung von LED-Beleuchtung," The Constitutional Economics Network Working Papers 01-2018, University of Freiburg, Department of Economic Policy and Constitutional Economic Theory.
    2. Sophia Delipalla & Owen O'Donnell, 1998. "The Comparison Between Ad Valorem and Specific Taxation under Imperfect Competition: Evidence from the European Cigarette Industry," Studies in Economics 9802, School of Economics, University of Kent.
    3. John Kay & Michael Keen, 1991. "Product Quality Under Specific and Ad Valorem Taxation," Public Finance Review, , vol. 19(2), pages 238-247, April.
    4. Michael Keen, 1998. "The balance between specific and ad valorem taxation," Fiscal Studies, Institute for Fiscal Studies, vol. 19(1), pages 1-37, February.
    5. Cecil E. Bohanon & T. Norman Van Cott, 1991. "Product Quality and Taxation: a Reconciliation," Public Finance Review, , vol. 19(2), pages 233-237, April.
    6. Roy Bahl & Richard Bird & Mary Beth Walker, 2003. "The Uneasy Case Against Discriminatory Excise Taxation: Soft Drink Taxes in Ireland," Public Finance Review, , vol. 31(5), pages 510-533, September.
    7. Marko Primorac & Silvija Vlah Jeric, 2017. "The Structure of Cigarette Excises in the EU: From Myths to Reality," CESifo Working Paper Series 6386, CESifo.

    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. David Hummels & Alexandre Skiba, 2004. "Shipping the Good Apples Out? An Empirical Confirmation of the Alchian-Allen Conjecture," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 112(6), pages 1384-1402, December.
    2. Charlotte Emlinger & Viola Lamani, 2020. "International trade, quality sorting and trade costs: the case of Cognac," Review of World Economics (Weltwirtschaftliches Archiv), Springer;Institut für Weltwirtschaft (Kiel Institute for the World Economy), vol. 156(3), pages 579-609, August.
    3. repec:wvu:wpaper:05-11 is not listed on IDEAS
    4. Goodhue, Rachael E. & LaFrance, Jeffrey T. & Simon, Leo K., 2009. "Wine Taxes, Production, Aging and Quality," Journal of Wine Economics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 4(1), pages 27-45, April.
    5. Goolsbee, Austan, 2004. "Taxes and the quality of capital," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 88(3-4), pages 519-543, March.
    6. Daniel Flores Curiel, 2016. "Subsidizing or taxing education? A note on the quality gap and government finances," Estudios Económicos, El Colegio de México, Centro de Estudios Económicos, vol. 31(2), pages 339-353.
    7. Ljunge Martin, 2011. "Do Taxes Produce Better Wine?," Journal of Agricultural & Food Industrial Organization, De Gruyter, vol. 9(1), pages 1-16, December.
    8. John Kay & Michael Keen, 1987. "Commodity Taxation for Maximum Revenue," Public Finance Review, , vol. 15(4), pages 371-385, October.
    9. Liu, Liqun, 2011. "The Alchian-Allen theorem and the law of relative demand: The case of multiple quality-differentiable brands," Mathematical Social Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 61(1), pages 52-57, January.
    10. T Nesbit, 2007. "Excise Taxation and Product Quality: The Gasoline Market," Economic Issues Journal Articles, Economic Issues, vol. 12(2), pages 1-14, September.
    11. Blum, Bianca, 2018. "Ausgestaltung einer Steuerpolitik zur Förderung von LED-Beleuchtung," The Constitutional Economics Network Working Papers 01-2018, University of Freiburg, Department of Economic Policy and Constitutional Economic Theory.
    12. Trela, I. & Whalley, J., 1988. "Do Developing Countries Lose From The Mfa?," University of Western Ontario, The Centre for the Study of International Economic Relations Working Papers 8804c, University of Western Ontario, The Centre for the Study of International Economic Relations.
    13. Lesley Chiou & Erich Muehlegger, 2014. "Consumer Response to Cigarette Excise Tax Changes," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association;National Tax Journal, vol. 67(3), pages 621-650, September.
    14. Blonigen, Bruce A. & Liebman, Benjamin H. & Pierce, Justin R. & Wilson, Wesley W., 2013. "Are all trade protection policies created equal? Empirical evidence for nonequivalent market power effects of tariffs and quotas," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 89(2), pages 369-378.
    15. Jie Feng & Jian Li & Wuyang Hu & Gucheng Li, 2022. "Public Interest, Risk, Trust, and Personal Protective Equipment Purchase and Usage: Face Masks Amid the COVID-19 Pandemic," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(9), pages 1-16, May.
    16. Christos Genakos & Mario Pagliero, 2022. "Competition and Pass-Through: Evidence from Isolated Markets," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 14(4), pages 35-57, October.
    17. Sanz Labrador, Ismael & Sanz-Sanz, José Félix, 2013. "Política fiscal y crecimiento económico: consideraciones microeconómicas y relaciones macroeconómicas," Macroeconomía del Desarrollo 5367, Naciones Unidas Comisión Económica para América Latina y el Caribe (CEPAL).
    18. Patrick Conway & Marco Fugazza & M. Kerem Yuksel, 2013. "TURKISH ENTERPRISE-LEVEL RESPONSE TO FOREIGN TRADE LIBERALIZATION: The Removal of Agreements on Textiles and Clothing Quotas," UNCTAD Blue Series Papers 59, United Nations Conference on Trade and Development.
    19. Gaigné, Carl & Laroche Dupraz, Cathie & Matthews, Alan, 2015. "Thirty years of European research on international trade in food and agricultural products," Revue d'Etudes en Agriculture et Environnement, Editions NecPlus, vol. 96(01), pages 91-130, March.
    20. Lewit, Eugene M. & Coate, Douglas, 1982. "The potential for using excise taxes to reduce smoking," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 1(2), pages 121-145, August.
    21. Tain-Jy Chen & Meng-chun Liu, 1995. "Bilateral Negotiations and Multilateral Trade: The Case of Taiwan-U.S. Trade Talks," NBER Working Papers 5324, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.

    More about this item

    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:sae:pubfin:v:12:y:1984:i:4:p:500-511. 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: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    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.