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Tax Incidence and Efficiency Costs of
Taxation
(Chapters 19-20 of Gruber’s textbook)
131 Undergraduate Public Economics
Emmanuel Saez
UC Berkeley
1
TAX INCIDENCE
Tax incidence is the study of the effects of tax policies on
prices and the economic welfare of individuals
What happens to market prices when a tax is introduced or
changed?
Example: what happens when impose $1 per pack tax on
cigarettes?
Effect on price ⇒ distributional effects on smokers, profits of
producers, shareholders, farmers, etc.
This is positive analysis: typically the first step in policy eval-
uation; it is an input to later thinking about what policy max-
imizes social welfare.2
TAX INCIDENCE
Tax incidence is not an accounting exercise but an analytical
characterization of changes in economic equilibria when taxes
are changed.
Key point: Taxes can be shifted: taxes affect directly prices,
which affect quantities because of behavioral responses, which
affect indirectly the price of other goods.
If prices are constant economic incidence would be the same
as legislative incidence.
Example: Liberals favor capital income taxation because capital income isconcentrated at the high end of the income distribution. Taxing capitalmeans taxing disproportionately the rich.
Argument neglects implicitly general equilibrium price effects: if peoplesave less because of capital taxes, capital stock may go down driving alsothe wages down and hurting workers. The capital tax might be shiftedpartly on workers.
3
Partial Equilibrium Tax Incidence
Partial Equilibrium Model:
Simple model goes a long way to showing main results.
Government levies an excise tax on good x
Excise means it is levied on a quantity (gallon, pack, ton, ...).Typically fixed in nominal terms (e.g, $1 per pack)
[ad-valorem tax is a fraction of prices (e.g. 5% sales tax)]
Let p denote the pretax price of x (producer price)
Let pc = p + t denote the tax inclusive price of x (consumerprice)
Draw graph on blackboard
4
p
S(p)=D(p)=Q
demand D(pc)
supply S(pp) Equilibrium with
no taxes
Price
Quantity
p tax dt
S(p)=D(p)=Q
demand D(pc)
supply S(pp) Equilibrium with
no taxes
Price
Quantity
pc = p+dp+dt
pp = p+dp
p tax dt
S(p+dp) =D(p+dp+dt)=Q+dQ
S(p)=D(p)=Q
demand D(pc)
supply S(pp) Equilibrium with
no taxes
Price
Quantity
TAX INCIDENCE
Demand for good x is D(pc) decreases with pc = p + t
Supply for good x is S(p) increases with p
Equilibrium condition: Q = S(p) = D(p + t)
Start from t = 0 and S(p) = D(p). We want to characterizedp/dt: effect of a small tax increase on price, which determineswho bears effective burden of tax:
Change dt generates change dp so that equilibrium holds:
S(p + dp) = D(p + dp + dt)⇒
S(p) + S′(p)dp = D(p) + D′(p)(dp + dt)⇒
S′(p)dp = D′(p)(dp + dt)⇒
dp
dt=
D′(p)
S′(p)−D′(p)
6
TAX INCIDENCE
Useful to use elasticities in economics because elasticities are
unit free
Elasticity: percentage change in quantity when price changes
by one percent
εD = qD
dDdq = qD′(q)
D(q) < 0 denotes the price elasticity of demand
εS = pSdSdp = pS′(p)
S(p) > 0 denotes the price elasticity of supply
dp
dt=
D′(p)
S′(p)−D′(p)=
εDεS − εD
−1 ≤dp
dt≤ 0 and 0 ≤
dq
dt= 1 +
dp
dt≤ 1
7
TAX INCIDENCE
dp
dt=
εDεS − εD
When do consumers bear the entire burden of the tax? (dp/dt =0 and dq/dt = 1)
1) εD = 0 [inelastic demand]
example: short-run demand for gasoline inelastic (need to drive to work)
2) εS =∞ [perfectly elastic supply]
example: perfectly competitive industry
When do producers bear the entire burden of the tax? (dp/dt =−1 and dq/dt = 0)
1) εS = 0 [inelastic supply]
example: fixed quantity supplied
2) εD = −∞ [perfectly elastic demand]
example: there is a close substitute, and demand shifts to this substituteif price changes.
8
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Public Finance and Public Policy Jonathan Gruber Fourth Edition Copyright © 2012 Worth Publishers
19.1
Perfectly Inelastic Demand
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C H A P T E R 1 9 ■ T H E E Q U I T Y I M P L I C A T I O N S O F T A X A T I O N : T A X I N C I D E N C E
Public Finance and Public Policy Jonathan Gruber Fourth Edition Copyright © 2012 Worth Publishers
19.1
Perfectly Elastic Demand
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Public Finance and Public Policy Jonathan Gruber Fourth Edition Copyright © 2012 Worth Publishers
19.1
Supply Elasticities
TAX INCIDENCE: KEY RESULTS
1) statutory incidence not equal to economic incidence
2) equilibrium is independent of who nominally pays the tax
3) more inelastic factor bears more of the tax
These are robust conclusions that hold with more complicated
models
10
Efficiency Costs of Taxation
Deadweight burden (also called excess burden) of taxation is
defined as the welfare loss (measured in dollars) created by a
tax over and above the tax revenue generated by the tax
In the simple supply and demand diagram, welfare is measured
by the sum of the consumer surplus and producer surplus
The welfare loss of taxation is measured as change in con-
sumer+producer surplus minus tax collected: it is the triangle
on the figure
The inefficiency of any tax is determined by the extent to which con-sumers and producers change their behavior to avoid the tax; deadweightloss is caused by individuals and firms making inefficient consumption andproduction choices in order to avoid taxation.
If there is no change in quantities consumed, the tax has no efficiencycosts
11
p+dp+dt
p+dp
p tax revenue dt ×Q
Q+dQ Q
D(pc)
S(pp)
DWB=1/2· dt·dQ from tax
Price
Quantity
Efficiency Costs of Taxation
Deadweight burden (or deadweight loss) of small tax dt (start-
ing from zero tax) is measured by the Harberger Triangle:
DWB =1
2dQ · dt =
1
2S′(p) · dp · dt =
1
2
pS′(p)
S(p)·Q
p· dp · dt
[recall that Q = S(p) and hence dQ = S′(p)dp]
Recall that dp/dt = εD/(εS − εD), hence:
DWB =1
2·εS · εDεS − εD
·Q
p(dt)2
13
Efficiency Costs of Taxation
DWB =1
2·εS · εDεS − εD
·Q
p(dt)2
1) DWB increases with the absolute size of elasticities εS > 0and −εD > 0
⇒ More efficient to tax relatively inelastic goods
2) DWB increases with the square of the tax rate t: smalltaxes have relatively small efficiency costs, large taxes haverelatively large efficiency costs
⇒ More efficient to spread taxes across all goods to keep each tax ratelow
⇒ Better to fund large one time govt expense (such as a war) with debtand repay slowly afterwards than have very high taxes only during war
3) Pre-existing distortions (such as an existing tax) makes thecost of taxation higher: move from the triangle to trapezoid
14
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C H A P T E R 2 0 ■ T A X I N E F F I C I E N C I E S A N D T H E I R I M P L I C A T I O N S F O R O P T I M A L T A X A T I O N
Public Finance and Public Policy Jonathan Gruber Fourth Edition Copyright © 2012 Worth Publishers
B
Price pergallon (P)
Quantity inbillions of
gallons (Q)
0
(a) Inelastic demand
S1
D1
P1
Q1
(b) Elastic demandS2
P2
Q2
Tax
A
B
C
DWL
Price pergallon (P)
Quantity inbillions of
gallons (Q)
0
S1
D1
P1
Q1
S2
P2
Q2
Tax
A
DWLC
Elasticities Determine Tax Inefficiency
20.1
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C H A P T E R 2 0 ■ T A X I N E F F I C I E N C I E S A N D T H E I R I M P L I C A T I O N S F O R O P T I M A L T A X A T I O N
Public Finance and Public Policy Jonathan Gruber Fourth Edition Copyright © 2012 Worth Publishers
B
C
Priceof gas
Quantity of gas0
S1
D1
P1
Q1
E
Tax =$0.10
Q2
P2
P3
D
DWL
Q3
Tax =$0.10
S2
S3
A
Marginal DWL Rises with Tax Rate
20.1
Application: Optimal Commodity Taxation
Ramsey (1927) asked by Pigou to solve the following problem:
Consider one consumer who consumes K different goods
What are the tax rates t1, .., tK of each good that raise agiven amount of revenue while minimizing the welfare loss tothe individual?
Uniform tax rates t = t1 = .. = tK is not optimal if the individ-ual has more elastic demand for some goods than for others
Optimum is called the Ramsey tax rule: optimal tax ratesare such that the marginal DWB for last dollar of tax collectedis the same across all goods
⇒ Tax more the goods that have inelastic demands [and taxless the goods that have elastic demands]
Note: this abstracts from redistribution and focuses solely on efficiency
16
Tax Incidence: Empirical Application
European countries have large taxes on consumption at ratesValue Added Tax (VAT)
Normal VAT rates are high (15-25%) but some goods/serviceshave lower rates (or are exempt)
Benzarti et al. (2017) study the effects of VAT rates ↑ and ↓
Nice illustrative case study: hairdressers in Finland got a VATcut of 14 points in Jan 2007 that was repealed in Jan 2012
Provide a basic graphical difference-in-difference analysis ofprices of hairdressers (treatment) with beauty salons (control)⇒ Find that tax decreases are only 50% passed on consumers while taxincreases are almost fully passed on consumers.
Most likely explanation: producers pocket tax cut bc consumers are inat-tentive to taxes. Producers pass tax increase but they can justify the priceincrease to consumers.
⇒ Price determination does not work like basic model
17
Figure 1: Finnish Hairdressing Sector VAT Reforms
∆VAT= - 14 p.p.
∆VAT= + 14 p.p.
85
95
10
511
51
25
13
5P
rice
in
de
x
Jan. 2005 Jan. 2007 Jan. 2012 Oct. 2015Months
Hairdressers (treated) Beauty Salons (control)
Notes: This figure shows the price of hairdressing services and beauty salonsbefore and after the 14 percentage point hairdressing services VAT cut inJanuary 2007 and the 14 percentage point VAT hairdressing services hike inJanuary 2012.
Figure 2: Proportion of Prices Changed by Hairdresser
01
02
03
04
0
0 .5 1 0 .5 1
mean= 0.42 se=0.0211 N= 384 mean= 0.76 se=0.0183 N= 345
VAT Decrease VAT Increase
Pe
rce
nt
Percent of Prices Changed By Firm
Notes: This figure plots the distribution of the within-hairdresser ratio ofservices for which prices were changed over total services offered followingthe VAT cut and hike.
32
Source: Benzarti et al. (2017)
Difference-in-Difference (DD) methodology
Two groups: Treatment group (T) which faces a change [hair-
dressers] and control group (C) which does not [beauty salons]
Compare the evolution of T group (before and after change)
to the evolution of the C group (before and after change)
DD identifies the treatment effect if the parallel trend as-
sumption holds:
Absent the change, T and C would have evolved in parallel
DD most convincing when groups are very similar to start with
Should always test DD using data from more periods and plot
the two time series to check parallel trend assumption
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Public Finance and Public Policy Jonathan Gruber Fourth Edition Copyright © 2012 Worth Publishers
19.4
• Excises tax on cigarettes varies widely across the United States.
o Low of $0.025/pack per pack in VA.
o High of $1.51/pack in CT and MA.
o Since 1990, NJ increased its tax rate nearly sixfold.
o Arizona has increased its tax nearly eightfold.
• Many studies examine how taxes affect prices.
• These studies uniformly conclude that the price of cigarettes rises by the full amount of the excise tax.
EVIDENCE: The Incidence of Excise Taxation
General Equilibrium Tax Incidence
Examples so far have focused on partial equilibrium incidence
which considers impact of a tax on one market in isolation
General equilibrium models consider the effects on related
markets of a tax imposed on one market
E.g. imposition of a tax on cars may reduce demand for steel
⇒ additional effects on prices in equilibrium beyond car market.
21
General Equilibrium Tax Incidence:Example: Soda Tax in Berkeley
Consider the market for Soda beverages in Berkeley
Berkeley imposes a Soda tax since 2015: $.01 per ounce(=$.12/can)
Goal was to reduce soda consumption for better health (peopleoverdrink). See Allcott et al. ’18 for merits of soda tax.
Here narrower question: Who bears the incidence?
If soda demand in Berkeley is inelastic, consumers bear burden
Demand for Soda in Berkeley is likely to be elastic: if price ofSoda in Berkeley goes up, you consume less Soda [intentionof the tax] or you buy Soda elsewhere
Consider extreme case of perfectly elastic demand
22
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Public Finance and Public Policy Jonathan Gruber Fourth Edition Copyright © 2012 Worth Publishers
19.3
Effects of a Restaurant Tax: A General Equilibrium
Example
General Equilibrium Tax Incidence:
Example: Soda Tax
If Soda demand perfectly elastic then:
1) Berkeley Soda sellers (supermarkets, restaurants) bear the
full burden of the tax.
2) But Soda sellers are not self-contained entities
Companies are just a technology for combining capital and labor to producean output.
Capital: land, physical inputs like building, kitchen equipment, etc.
Labor: cashier staff, cooks, waitstaff, etc.
3) Ultimately, these two factors (capital or labor) must bear
the loss in profits due to the tax [if consumer demand is per-
fectly elastic]
24
General Equilibrium Tax Incidence:
Example: Soda Tax
Incidence is “shifted backward” to capital and labor.
Assume that labor supply is perfectly elastic because Berkeleyrestaurant/supermarket workers can always go and work inOakland if they get paid less in Berkeley
Capital, in contrast, is perfectly inelastic in short-run: youcannot pick up the shop and move it in the short run.
In short run, capital bears tax because it is completely inelastic⇒ Soda business owners lose (not consumers or workers)
In the longer-run, the supply of capital is also likely to be highlyelastic: Investors can close or sell the shop, take their money,and invest it elsewhere.
25
General Equilibrium Tax Incidence: Long-run effects
If both labor and capital are highly elastic in the long run, whobears the tax?
The one additional inelastic factor is land.
The supply is clearly fixed.
When both labor and capital can avoid the tax, the only waySoda sellers will remain in Berleley is if they pay a lower renton their land.
⇒ Soda tax ends up hurting Berkeley landowners in generalequilibrium [if Soda demand, labor and capital are fully elastic]
This if of course an idealized example, in practice, demand,labor, and capital are not fully elastic so that incidence isshared
26
CBO TAX INCIDENCE ASSUMPTIONS
The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) analysis considersthe incidence of the full set of taxes levied by the federalgovernment. Their key assumptions follow:
1. Individual Income taxes are borne fully by the householdsthat pay them.
2. Payroll taxes are borne fully by workers, regardless ofwhether these taxes are paid by the workers or by the firm.
3. Excise taxes are fully shifted to prices and so are borneby individuals in proportion to their consumption of the taxeditem.
4. Corporate taxes are allocated 75% to owners of capital(not only shareholders but owners of capital in general) inproportion to capital income and 25% to labor in proportionto labor income [controversial and to be discussed later]
27
JUNE 2016 THE DISTRIBUTION OF HOUSEHOLD INCOME AND FEDERAL TAXES, 2013 11
CBO
Figure 4.
Average Federal Tax Rates, by Before-Tax Income Group, 2013
Source: Congressional Budget Office.
Average federal tax rates are calculated by dividing federal taxes by before-tax income.
Before-tax income is market income plus government transfers. Market income consists of labor income, business income, capital gains (profits realized from the sale of assets), capital income excluding capital gains, income received in retirement for past services, and other sources of income. Government transfers are cash payments and in-kind benefits from social insurance and other government assistance programs. Those transfers include payments and benefits from federal, state, and local governments.
Federal taxes include individual income taxes, payroll taxes, corporate income taxes, and excise taxes.
Income groups are created by ranking households by before-tax income, adjusted for household size. Quintiles (fifths) contain equal numbers of people; percentiles (hundredths) contain equal numbers of people as well.
For more detailed definitions of income, see the appendix.
for households in the middle quintile. Because individual income tax rates are negative, on average, for households in the bottom two quintiles, the differences between pay-roll tax rates and income tax rates are even more signifi-cant. Payroll tax rates are about 9 percentage points and 15 percentage points higher than income tax rates for households in the second and lowest quintiles, respectively.
Corporate Income Taxes. The average corporate income tax borne by households increases with income. CBO allocates most of that tax in proportion to each household’s share of total capital income (including adjusted capital gains), which constitutes a larger share
of income at the top of the distribution.21 In 2013, the average corporate income tax rate—corporate taxes divided by before-tax household income—was 3.7 percent for households in the highest quintile and around
Lowest Quintile
Second Quintile
Middle Quintile
Fourth Quintile
Highest Quintile81st to 90th Percentiles
91st to 95th Percentiles
96th to 99th Percentiles
Top 1 Percent
Percent
Average forEntire Quintile
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35
21. CBO allocates 75 percent of the corporate income tax to households in proportion to their share of capital income and 25 percent to households in proportion to their share of labor income. For more discussion of the incidence of the corporate income tax, see Congressional Budget Office, The Distribution of Household Income and Federal Taxes, 2008 and 2009 (July 2012), www.cbo.gov/publication/43373. For more discussion of the adjustments made to realized capital gains when allocating the corporate tax to households, see the appendix.
12 THE DISTRIBUTION OF HOUSEHOLD INCOME AND FEDERAL TAXES, 2013 JUNE 2016
CBO
Figure 5.
Average Federal Tax Rates, by Before-Tax Income Group and Tax Source, 2013
Source: Congressional Budget Office.
Average federal tax rates are calculated by dividing federal taxes by before-tax income.
Before-tax income is market income plus government transfers. Market income consists of labor income, business income, capital gains (profits realized from the sale of assets), capital income excluding capital gains, income received in retirement for past services, and other sources of income. Government transfers are cash payments and in-kind benefits from social insurance and other government assistance programs. Those transfers include payments and benefits from federal, state, and local governments.
Negative average tax rates for individual income taxes result when refundable tax credits, such as the earned income tax credit and the child tax credit, exceed the other income tax liabilities of the households in an income group.
Income groups are created by ranking households by before-tax income, adjusted for household size. Quintiles (fifths) contain equal numbers of people; percentiles (hundredths) contain equal numbers of people as well.
For more detailed definitions of income, see the appendix.
1 percent for households in the other four income quin-tiles, CBO estimates. In that year, almost 80 percent of the total corporate tax burden was borne by households in the highest income quintile; about 47 percent of the total corporate tax burden was borne by households in the top 1 percent of the income distribution.
Excise Taxes. Sales of a wide variety of goods and services are subject to federal excise taxes. Most of the revenues raised come from taxes on the sale of motor fuels (gasoline and diesel fuel), tobacco products, alcoholic beverages, and aviation-related goods and services (such as aviation fuel and airline tickets). Excise taxes are regressive—that is, the burden of excise taxes relative to income is greatest for lower-income households, which tend to spend a larger share of their income on those taxed goods and services. In 2013, average excise tax rates were 1.7 percent for households in the lowest income quintile, 0.9 percent for households in the middle income quintile, and 0.4 per-cent for households in the highest income quintile, CBO estimates.
After-Tax Income Across the Income ScaleIn 2013, households in each income group paid a positive amount of federal taxes, on average. Consequently, aver-age after-tax income was lower than average before-tax income for each income group. Because average federal tax rates rise with income, the difference between before-tax and after-tax income grows as income rises, and the distribution of after-tax income is slightly more even than the distribution of before-tax income. In the lowest quin-tile of before-tax income, average after-tax income was more than $800 lower than average before-tax income ($24,500 versus $25,400); for households in the middle quintile of before-tax income, the difference was approxi-mately $8,900 ($60,800 versus $69,700); for households in the highest quintile of before-tax income, the differ-ence was approximately $69,700 ($195,300 versus $265,000); see Table 1 on page 2. For households in the top 1 percent, the difference was approximately $534,000 ($1,037,000 versus $1,572,000), CBO estimates.
Another metric used to examine how the distributions of before- and after-tax income differ is the differences in the shares of those income measures going to each
Individual Income Taxes Payroll Taxes Corporate Income Taxes Excise Taxes-10
-5
0
5
10
15
20
LowestQuintile
SecondQuintile
MiddleQuintile
FourthQuintile
HighestQuintile
INCIDENCE OF FEDERAL TAXES
1. Individual Income taxes is progressive due to tax creditsfor low earners and progressive tax brackets
2. Payroll taxes are a constant tax rate of 15% but only upto $120K of earnings ⇒ Regressive at the top
3. Excise taxes are regressive because share of income de-voted to consumption of goods with excise tax (alcohol, to-bacco, gas) falls with income
4. Corporate taxes are progressive because capital income ishighly concentrated
State+local taxes are less progressive than Federal taxes (seeITEP 2018 report)
Piketty, Saez, Zucman ’18 estimate total tax rates (Fed+state+local)overtime relative to National Income
29
0%
5%
10%
15%
20%
25%
30%
35%
40%
45% 19
13
1918
1923
1928
1933
1938
1943
1948
1953
1958
1963
1968
1973
1978
1983
1988
1993
1998
2003
2008
2013
% o
f pre
-tax
inco
me
Average tax rates by pre-tax income group
Source: Appendix Table II-G1.
All
Bottom 50%
Top 1%
0%
5%
10%
15%
20%
25%
30%
35%
40%
45% 19
13
1918
1923
1928
1933
1938
1943
1948
1953
1958
1963
1968
1973
1978
1983
1988
1993
1998
2003
2008
2013
% o
f top
1%
pre
-tax
inco
me
Figure S.22: Taxes paid by the top 1%
Estate taxes
Sales + residential property + payroll taxes
Corporate taxes
Individual income taxes
Source: Appendix Table II-G2
0%
5%
10%
15%
20%
25%
30% 19
13
1918
1923
1928
1933
1938
1943
1948
1953
1958
1963
1968
1973
1978
1983
1988
1993
1998
2003
2008
2013
% o
f bot
tom
50%
pre
-tax
inco
me
Taxes paid by the bottom 50%
Capital taxes
Sales taxes
Individual income taxes
Payroll taxes
Source: Appendix Table II-G2
Tax Salience: A New Theory
Traditional model assumes that all individuals are fully aware
of taxes that they pay
Is this true in practice? May be not be because many taxes
are not fully salient.
Do you know your exact marginal income tax rate? Do you think about itwhen choosing a job?
Do you know the sales tax you have to pay in addition to posted prices atcash register?
Chetty, Looney, Kroft AER ’09: test this assumption in the
context of commodity taxes and develop a theory of taxation
with inattentive consumers
31
Tax Salience: A New Theory
Chetty, Looney, Kroft AER’09 develop two empirical strategiesto test whether salience matters for sales tax incidence
Sales tax is paid at the cash register and not displayed on pricetags in stores
1) Randomized field experiment with supermarket stores
In one treatment store: they display new price tags showing the level ofsales tax and total price on a subset of products
Compare shopping behavior for treated products vs. control products intreated store, before and after new tags are implemented (this is calleddifference-in-difference [DD] strategy)
Repeat the analysis in control stores as a placebo DD strategy
2) Policy experiment using variation in beer excise and salestaxes across states
Excise tax is salient because built into posted price while sales tax is notsalient because it is not included in posted price
32
Orig.
Tag
Exp.
Tag
Source: Chetty, Looney, Kroft (2009)
Period Difference
Baseline 26.48 25.17 -1.31
(0.22) (0.37) (0.43)
Experiment 27.32 23.87 -3.45
(0.87) (1.02) (0.64)
Difference 0.84 -1.30 DD TS = -2.14
over time (0.75) (0.92) (0.64)
DDD Estimate -2.20
(0.58)
Effect of Posting Tax-Inclusive Prices: Mean Quantity Sold
TREATMENT STORE
Control Categories Treated Categories
Period Difference
Baseline 30.57 27.94 -2.63
(0.24) (0.30) (0.32)
Experiment 30.76 28.19 -2.57
(0.72) (1.06) (1.09)
Difference 0.19 0.25 DD CS = 0.06
over time (0.64) (0.92) (0.90)
CONTROL STORES
Control Categories Treated Categories
Source: Chetty, Looney, Kroft (2009)
-.1
-.05
0
.05
.1
-.02 -.015 -.01 -.005 0 .005 .01 .015 .02
Figure 2a
Per Capita Beer Consumption and State Beer Excise Taxes
Change in L
og P
er
Capita B
eer
Consum
ption
Change in Log(1+Beer Excise Rate)
Source: Chetty, Looney, Kroft (2009)
-.1
-.05
0
.05
.1
-.02 -.015 -.01 -.005 0 .005 .01 .015 .02
Figure 2b
Per Capita Beer Consumption and State Sales Taxes
Change in L
og P
er
Capita B
eer
Consum
ption
Change in Log(1+Sales Tax Rate)
Source: Chetty, Looney, Kroft (2009)
Dependent Variable: Change in Log(per capita beer consumption)
Baseline Bus Cyc,
Alc Regs. 3-Year Diffs Food Exempt
(1) (2) (3) (4)
ΔLog(1+Excise Tax Rate) -0.87 -0.89 -1.11 -0.91
(0.17)*** (0.17)*** (0.46)** (0.22)***
ΔLog(1+Sales Tax Rate) -0.20 -0.02 -0.00 -0.14
(0.30) (0.30) (0.32) (0.30)
Business Cycle Controls x x x
Alcohol Regulation Controls x x x
Year Fixed Effects x x x x
F-Test for Equality of Coeffs. 0.05 0.01 0.05 0.04
Sample Size 1,607 1,487 1,389 937
Effect of Excise and Sales Taxes on Beer Consumption
Note: Estimates imply qt 0.06 Source: Chetty, Looney, Kroft (2009)
Tax Salience: A New Theory
Key Empirical Result: Salience matters
1) Posting sales taxes reduces demand for those goods
2) Beer consumption is elastic to excise tax rate (built in
posted price) but not to the sales tax rate (not built in the
posted price)
⇒ If tax is not salient to consumers, they are less elastic, and
hence more likely to bear the tax burden
A number of recent empirical studies show that individuals
are not fully informed and fully rational and this has large
consequences for policy
34
REFERENCES
Jonathan Gruber, Public Finance and Public Policy, Fifth Edition, 2016Worth Publishers, Chapter 19
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