IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/mlb/wpaper/929.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Excise Taxation in New Zealand

Author

Listed:
  • John Creedy
  • Catherine Sleeman

Abstract

In New Zealand, excise taxes are levied on three commodity groups: alcohol, tobacco and petrol. The 2001 Tax Review, published by the New Zealand Treasury, argued that excises are inequitable and inefficient, and advised that these taxes should be removed and the revenue replaced by raising the standard rate of GST. This paper provides an empirical examination of these issues. First, the efficiency of New Zealand’s current system of indirect taxes is examined. The welfare and redistributive effects resulting from the revenue-neutral removal of excise taxes are then examined. Welfare and redistributive measures are computed for a range of demographic groups and total weekly expenditure levels. While the largest efficiency gains and reductions in inequality are observed for households with at least one smoker, the overall distributional implications of the proposed reforms are found to be small.

Suggested Citation

  • John Creedy & Catherine Sleeman, 2005. "Excise Taxation in New Zealand," Department of Economics - Working Papers Series 929, The University of Melbourne.
    • Handle: RePEc:mlb:wpaper:929
    Note: This paper has now been published in: Creedy, J. and Sleeman, C. (2005) Excise Taxation in New Zealand, New Zealand Economic Papers, 39, no.1, pp. 1-35.
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.economics.unimelb.edu.au/downloads/wpapers-05/929.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. John Creedy, 1998. "Measuring Welfare Changes and Tax Burdens," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 1579.
    2. repec:bla:econom:v:64:y:1997:i:254:p:233-44 is not listed on IDEAS
    3. John Creedy & Catherine Sleeman, 2004. "Adult Equivalence Scales, Inequality and Poverty in New Zealand," Treasury Working Paper Series 04/21, New Zealand Treasury.
    4. John Creedy, 1998. "Measuring the Welfare Effects of Price Changes: A Convenient Parametric Approach," Australian Economic Papers, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 37(2), pages 137-151, June.
    5. Felicity Barker, 2002. "Consumption Externalities and the Role of Government: The Case of Alcohol," Treasury Working Paper Series 02/25, New Zealand Treasury.
    6. repec:bla:ausecp:v:37:y:1998:i:2:p:137-51 is not listed on IDEAS
    7. Jenkins, Stephen P & Cowell, Frank A, 1994. "Parametric Equivalence Scales and Scale Relativities," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 104(425), pages 891-900, July.
    8. Yoram Amiel & John Creedy & Stan Hurn, 1999. "Measuring Attitudes Towards Inequality," Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 101(1), pages 83-96, March.
    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. John Creedy & Catherine Sleeman, 2006. "Indirect Taxation and Progressivity: Revenue and Welfare Changes," FinanzArchiv: Public Finance Analysis, Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen, vol. 62(1), pages 50-67, March.
    2. John Creedy & Penny Mok, 2018. "The marginal welfare cost of personal income taxation in New Zealand," New Zealand Economic Papers, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 52(3), pages 323-338, September.
    3. John Creedy, 2017. "The Optimal Threshold for GST on Imported Goods," Australian Economic Review, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, vol. 50(2), pages 169-180, June.
    4. John Creedy & Penny Mok, 2018. "The marginal welfare cost of personal income taxation in New Zealand," New Zealand Economic Papers, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 52(3), pages 323-338, September.

    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. John Creedy, 2004. "The Effects on New Zealand Households of an Increase in The Petrol Excise Tax," Treasury Working Paper Series 04/01, New Zealand Treasury.
    2. Creedy, John & Sleeman, Catherine, 2006. "Carbon taxation, prices and welfare in New Zealand," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 57(3), pages 333-345, May.
    3. John Creedy & Rosanna Scutella, 2004. "The Role of the Unit of Analysis in Tax Policy Return Evaluations of Inequality and Social Welfare," Australian Journal of Labour Economics (AJLE), Bankwest Curtin Economics Centre (BCEC), Curtin Business School, vol. 7(1), pages 89-108, March.
    4. Creedy, John & Gemmell, Norman & Hérault, Nicolas & Mok, Penny, 2018. "Microsimulation Analysis of Optimal Income Tax Reforms. An Application to New Zealand," Working Paper Series 20834, Victoria University of Wellington, Chair in Public Finance.
    5. John Creedy & Nicolas Hérault, 2009. "Optimal Marginal Income Tax Reforms: A Microsimulation Analysis," Melbourne Institute Working Paper Series wp2009n23, Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, The University of Melbourne.
    6. Creedy, John & Gemmell, Norman & Hérault, Nicolas & Mok, Penny, 2018. "Microsimulation Analysis of Optimal Income Tax Reforms. An Application to New Zealand," GLO Discussion Paper Series 213, Global Labor Organization (GLO).
    7. John Creedy, 2013. "Alternative Distributions for Inequality and Poverty Comparisons," Treasury Working Paper Series 13/11, New Zealand Treasury.
    8. Sotomayor, Orlando J., 2021. "Can the minimum wage reduce poverty and inequality in the developing world? Evidence from Brazil," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 138(C).
    9. John Creedy & Rosanna Scutella, 2003. "The Role of the Unit of Analysis in Tax Policy Reform Evaluations," Melbourne Institute Working Paper Series wp2003n28, Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, The University of Melbourne.
    10. Orlando Sotomayor, 2019. "Growth with reduction in poverty and inequality: did Brazil show the way?," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 17(4), pages 521-541, December.
    11. John Creedy & Norman Gemmell & Nicolas Hérault & Penny Mok, 2020. "A microsimulation analysis of marginal welfare-improving income tax reforms for New Zealand," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 27(2), pages 409-434, April.
    12. Ashantha Ranasinghe & Xuejuan Su, 2023. "When social assistance meets market power: A mixed duopoly view of health insurance in the United States," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 61(4), pages 851-869, October.
    13. Angela Daley & Thesia I. Garner & Shelley Phipps & Eva Sierminska, 2020. "Differences across Place and Time in Household Expenditure Patterns: Implications for the Estimation of Equivalence Scales," Economic Working Papers 520, Bureau of Labor Statistics.
    14. Fredrik Carlsson & Dinky Daruvala & Olof Johansson‐Stenman, 2005. "Are People Inequality‐Averse, or Just Risk‐Averse?," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 72(287), pages 375-396, August.
    15. Vincenzo Atella & Jay Coggins & Federico Perali, 2005. "Aversion to inequality in Italy and its determinants," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 2(2), pages 117-144, January.
    16. Tol, Richard S.J. & Yohe, Gary W., 2009. "The Stern Review: A deconstruction," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 37(3), pages 1032-1040, March.
    17. Creedy, John & Guest, Ross, 2008. "Population ageing and intertemporal consumption: Representative agent versus social planner," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 25(3), pages 485-498, May.
    18. Can, Zeynep Gizem & O'Donoghue, Cathal & Sologon, Denisa Maria & Smith, Darius & Griffin, Rosaleen & Murray, Una, 2023. "Modelling the Distributional Effects of the Cost-of-Living Crisis in Turkey and the South Caucasus: A Microsimulation Analysis," IZA Discussion Papers 16619, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    19. 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).
    20. Espen Bratberg & Sigve Tjøtta, 2008. "Income effects of divorce in families with dependent children," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 21(2), pages 439-461, April.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Indirect taxation; equivalent variations; excess burdens; inequality; tax reform;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • H21 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Efficiency; Optimal Taxation
    • H23 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Externalities; Redistributive Effects; Environmental Taxes and Subsidies
    • H31 - Public Economics - - Fiscal Policies and Behavior of Economic Agents - - - Household

    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:mlb:wpaper:929. 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: Dandapani Lokanathan (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/demelau.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.