IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/hhs/oruesi/2014_007.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Welfare impact of broadening VAT by exempting local food markets: The case of Bangladesh

Author

Listed:
  • Levin, Jörgen

    (Örebro University School of Business)

  • Sayeed, Yeasmin

    (Örebro University School of Business)

Abstract

The spread of value-added tax (VAT) in developing countries has been dramatic since the beginning of 1990’s. Adopted by more than 130 countries, including many of the poorest, VAT has been, and remains, the key of tax reform in many developing countries. While adopting VAT, there are arguments for and against uniform general VAT system. A uniform and general VAT on all commodities is considered to be efficient and less distortionary. On the other hand, from the distributional perspective many goods especially food is exempted from VAT as low income households spend a high share of income on food. The contribution of this study is to analyze the income distribution and welfare impact of VAT reform when the food sectors are divided into local markets and supermarkets. A Computable General Equilibrium (CGE) model is used to evaluate the consequences of VAT reforms for Bangladesh. Our simulation results show that, a VAT reform that exempts the agriculture sector and local market food commodities provides the best welfare and distributional impact.

Suggested Citation

  • Levin, Jörgen & Sayeed, Yeasmin, 2014. "Welfare impact of broadening VAT by exempting local food markets: The case of Bangladesh," Working Papers 2014:7, Örebro University, School of Business.
    • Handle: RePEc:hhs:oruesi:2014_007
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.oru.se/globalassets/oru-sv/institutioner/hh/workingpapers/workingpapers2014/wp-7-2014.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Stefan Boeters & Christoph Bohringer & Thiess Buttner & Margit Kraus, 2010. "Economic effects of VAT reforms in Germany," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 42(17), pages 2165-2182.
    2. Arndt, Channing & Dorosh, Paul A. & Fontana, Marzia & Zohir, Sajjad & El-Said, Moataz & Lungren, Christen, 2002. "Opportunities and challenges in agriculture and garments: A general equilibrium analysis of the Bangladesh economy," TMD discussion papers 107, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    3. Ahmad, Ehtisham & Ludlow, Stephen, 1989. "The distributional consequences of a tax reform on a VAT for Pakistan," Policy Research Working Paper Series 238, The World Bank.
    4. Keen, Michael & Lockwood, Ben, 2010. "The value added tax: Its causes and consequences," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 92(2), pages 138-151, July.
    5. Younger, Stephen D, et al, 1999. "Tax Incidence in Madagascar: An Analysis Using Household Data," The World Bank Economic Review, World Bank, vol. 13(2), pages 303-331, May.
    6. Vjekoslav Bratic, 2006. "Tax expenditures: a theoretical review," Financial Theory and Practice, Institute of Public Finance, vol. 30(2), pages 113-127.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Zhang, Yan & Bai, Zhuoran & Findaly, Christopher, 2021. "Value-added Tax Reform and Services Exports: Evidence from China," MPRA Paper 111184, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 2021.
    2. Miss Saadia Refaqat, 2003. "Social Incidence of the General Sales Tax in Pakistan," IMF Working Papers 2003/216, International Monetary Fund.
    3. Mahfoudh Hussein Mgammal & Ebrahim Mohammed Al-Matari & Talal Fawzi Alruwaili, 2023. "Value-added-tax rate increases: A comparative study using difference-in-difference with an ARIMA modeling approach," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 10(1), pages 1-17, December.
    4. Junguo Shi & Xinyi Yuan & Bert M. Sadowski & Kou Kou & Xuhua Hu & Sihan Li & Shanshan Dou, 2022. "VAT Reform, Regional Ownership Structure, and Industrial Upgrading: Evidence From Firms in Northeast China," SAGE Open, , vol. 12(2), pages 21582440221, April.
    5. Combey, Adama, 2020. "Evaluation De L’Ecart De Tva Au Togo [Evaluation Of The Vat Gap In Togo]," MPRA Paper 101478, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    6. Nina Hetzer & Andreas Peichl, 2010. "Steuerstrukturreform trotz leerer Kassen?!," ifo Schnelldienst, ifo Institute - Leibniz Institute for Economic Research at the University of Munich, vol. 63(01), pages 28-35, January.
    7. Kodjo Adandohoin & Vigninou Gammadigbe, 2022. "The revenue efficiency consequences of the announcement of a tax transition reform: The case of WAEMU countries," African Development Review, African Development Bank, vol. 34(S1), pages 195-218, July.
    8. Michael Keen, 2007. "VAT attacks!," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 14(4), pages 365-381, August.
    9. Christian EBEKE, 2010. "Remittances, Value Added Tax and Tax Revenue in Developing Countries," Working Papers 201030, CERDI.
    10. Bird, Richard, 2010. "Taxation and Development," World Bank - Economic Premise, The World Bank, issue 34, pages 1-5, September.
    11. Timothy Besley & Torsten Persson, 2011. "Pillars of Prosperity: The Political Economics of Development Clusters," Economics Books, Princeton University Press, edition 1, number 9624.
    12. Tang, Yajun & Wang, Li & Shu, Haicheng, 2024. "“Tax reduction” and the financialization of real enterprises: Evidence from China’s “VAT reform”," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 92(C), pages 835-850.
    13. Helene Ehrhart, 2013. "Elections and the structure of taxation in developing countries," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 156(1), pages 195-211, July.
    14. Tabi Atemnkeng Johannes & Tafah Akwi & Peter Etoh Anzah, 2006. "The Distributive Impact of Fiscal Policy in Cameroon: Tax and Benefit Incidence," Working Papers PMMA 2006-16, PEP-PMMA.
    15. Emmanuel Ekow Asmah & Francis Kwaw Andoh & Edem Titriku, 2020. "Trade misinvoicing effects on tax revenue in sub‐Saharan Africa: The role of tax holidays and regulatory quality," Annals of Public and Cooperative Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 91(4), pages 649-672, December.
    16. Kilama, Eric Gabin, 2016. "The influence of China and emerging donors aid allocation: A recipient perspective," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 38(C), pages 76-91.
    17. Tanjinul Hoque Mollah & Sharmin Shishir & Wahid Ullah & Takaaki Nihei, 2019. "Assessing NGOs micro-credit programs: a geo-spatial and socio-economic scenario from rural Bangladesh," International Review of Economics, Springer;Happiness Economics and Interpersonal Relations (HEIRS), vol. 66(2), pages 79-99, June.
    18. Christian Ebeke & Helene Ehrhart, 2012. "Tax Revenue Instability in Sub-Saharan Africa: Consequences and Remedies," Journal of African Economies, Centre for the Study of African Economies, vol. 21(1), pages 1-27, January.
    19. Stanley L. Winer, 2016. "The Political Economy of Taxation: Power, Structure, Redistribution," Carleton Economic Papers 16-15, Carleton University, Department of Economics.
    20. Mardan, Mohammed & Stimmelmayr, Michael, 2020. "Tax competition between developed, emerging, and developing countries – Same same but different?," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 146(C).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    VAT; VAT reform; incidence analysis; equity and welfare; CGE; Bangladesh;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • H21 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Efficiency; Optimal Taxation
    • H22 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Incidence
    • H23 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Externalities; Redistributive Effects; Environmental Taxes and Subsidies
    • I31 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty - - - General Welfare, Well-Being

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:hhs:oruesi:2014_007. 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 person in charge (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/ieoruse.html .

    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.