Why are grocery foods taxed in the United States? Theory and spatial evidence from multilevel government interactions

Abstract

Grocery food sales taxes (or grocery taxes) in the United States are applied in the form of a state and/or county tax. To investigate how local governments establish these grocery taxes, we develop a dynamic gaming model to explain the county–county and county–state interactions regarding grocery taxes. Leveraging novel panel data on grocery taxes at county and state levels from 2006 to 2017, we estimate a dynamic spatial model including multilevel governments. The empirical evidence unveils three key spatial determinants that contribute to variations in county grocery tax rates. (1) A negative vertical impact from the home state, (2) a positive horizontal effect from neighboring counties, and (3) a positive diagonal effect from neighboring states.