Tax Elasticity Research Articles

Democratic reversals and the size of government

While the fiscal and redistributive consequences of democracy is one of the central debates in political economy, most empirical studies analyze this question solely in the context of transitions to democracy. In this paper, we explore the consequences to taxation of democratic reversal using the systematic disenfranchisement of African Americans in the US South between 1880 and 1910. Following the federally-imposed extension of the franchise to the former slaves during Reconstruction (1865–1877), Southern states erected a series of legal restrictions, such as literacy tests and poll taxes, aimed primarily at preventing Southern African Americans from registering to vote. Using an original dataset of local and state taxes and a difference-in-differences estimation strategy, we demonstrate that the adoption of literacy tests for voting eligibility in each state was followed by a significant decline in tax revenues that is highly correlated to the share of each county's population who was African American. We also find that black disenfranchisement led to a shift of the tax burden onto urban counties and a greater reliance on indirect taxation. Our results survive a battery of robustness checks, alternative specifications and additional tests of the redistributionist thesis. The findings are not only consistent with standard models of redistribution following democratization, but also indicate that the elasticity of taxes with respect to enfranchisement is substantial and larger than the one suggested by the cross-national literature.

Analysis of Elasticity and Buoyancy and Projection of Tax in Nepal

This study has been designed to calculate elasticity and buoyancy and projection of various taxes in Nepal from 2018 to 2020. This study is based on secondary data published by the government of Nepal covering a period between the fiscal year 2000 to 2016. The various sources of revenue as a proportion of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) have been analyzed during this period. This study particularly deals with the analysis of elasticity and buoyancy of tax and nontax revenue. The projection of tax revenue since 2018 to 2020 has also been forecasted. The findings reveals that the overall tax system of Nepal seemed to be inelastic during study period, and direct taxes appeared smaller elasticity’s than indirect taxes and those buoyancy coefficients of major taxes became much higher than their respective elasticities.

ASSESSMENT OF THE LINK BETWEEN MACROECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT INDICATORS AND TAX REVENUES OF THE COUNTRY

In any country, the tax system acts as the basis of the economic system. In Poland, the process of improving the tax system is constantly underway. It is aimed at unification with world norms and standards and depends on the strategic directions of the national economic development. Since the opportunities for implementation of the country's strategic development programmes depend on the level of the state income and the main indicators of national development are macroeconomic indicators, the purpose of the paper is to study the relationship between the dynamics of macroeconomic indicators and tax revenues of the country. In the research study there were used some general scientific and special methods, such as: systematic method (in the research study of taxes in the structure of budget revenues); comparison, grouping, analysis and synthesis, statistical method (in analysing the dynamics of macroeconomic indicators and the volume of tax revenues in the budget of Poland); method of logical generalisation (for the formation of conclusions). The research used data exclusively from the official statistical sources of the Main Statistics Office of Poland, the National Bank of Poland, the Ministry of Finance of Poland. The paper identifies the importance of tax revenues in the revenue part of the budget, analyzes the growth rates of taxes and macroeconomic indicators, establishes a correlation and a regression relationship between gross domestic product, public debt, balance of trade, volume of gold reserves and total tax revenues, and also outlines the level of efficiency of the Polish tax system on the basis of the coefficient of tax elasticity. The results of the research study showed that tax revenues are sensitive to changes in the growth of gross domestic product, as well as changes in public debt, exports and imports, gold and foreign exchange reserves. All the above should take into account the country while being in the budget planning and forecasting process.

On the measurement of investment types: Heterogeneity in corporate tax elasticities

AbstractThis paper contributes to debates about the appropriate characterisation of heterogeneous investment types and to what extent different investment motives affect the responsiveness to corporate taxation. In particular, we employ and refine a methodology to better evaluate the tax elasticity of investment types. Using a combination of both firm‐specific information and sector‐specific information from input–output tables, we discuss how to classify investment as non‐related, horizontal, vertical and complex types. First, we point out to what extent the resulting classification depends on assumptions made by the researcher. Second, we employ an ample set of classifications and find that non‐related investment reacts stronger to corporate taxation, whereas horizontal investment is less responsive, though, significant negative tax semi‐elasticities turn out for the subset of manufacturing industries. To address inherent characteristics of vertical and complex investment, we extend the methodology and find that, by and large, stronger business motives reduce the tax responsiveness of investment to a larger extent. Given the current debates about substantial corporate tax reforms, it is all the more important to recognise that corporate tax effects can vary fundamentally between countries, driven by country‐specific differences in their composition of industries and investment types.

Do Tax Incentives Affect Charitable Contributions? Evidence from Public Charitiess Reported Revenues

This paper estimates the effect of the charitable contribution tax deduction on charities’ donation revenue from charities’ tax filings. A one percent increase in the tax cost of giving causes charitable receipts to fall by about four percent, an effect three times larger the consensus in the literature. Further analysis reveals substantial heterogeneity in the tax response by subsector: health care and home care are more tax-sensitive than other charities, while higher education and arts are less tax-sensitive. The results are consistent with substantial tax response heterogeneity within the sample and between sampled and unsampled charities, implying that the mean tax elasticity of charitable contributions is a poor predictor of tax incentive effects for individual charities.

EFEITOS POLÍTICOS FISCAIS NO BRASIL: ESTRATÉGIA DEEFEITOS POLÍTICOS FISCAIS NO BRASIL: ESTRATÉGIA DE TRANSFORMAÇÃO E IDENTIFICAÇÃO DE VARIÁVEIS TRANSFORMAÇÃO E IDENTIFICAÇÃO DE VARIÁVEIS

Este trabalho buscou estimar os efeitos da política fiscal brasileira – receitas e despesas do governo – sobre o produto. A análise foi baseada em funções impulso-resposta derivadas de um modelo auto-regressivo estrutural, com três variáveis endógenas: ga

CORPORATE INCOME TAX: EFFECTIVENESS IN THE CONTEXT OF PUBLIC FISCAL POLICY AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP SUPPORT

The article analyzes the approaches to the definition of the essence and quantitative assessment of the fiscal effectiveness of the income tax. According to the results of the study, it was found out that the fiscal effectiveness of the income tax can be estimated through the indicators of fiscal importance of the tax in the tax revenues of the state (consolidated) budget; tax burden of the tax (in relation to GDP); elasticity of income tax; effective tax rate and tax productivity, etc. The analysis of the dynamics of these indicators over the past few years in Ukraine has allowed us to confirm the low level of fiscal effectiveness and regulatory potential of this tax for Ukraine. One of the possible ways to improve the fiscal effectiveness of the income tax is to use indirect channels of influence, which are represented by the general state of the country's economic development, labor market efficiency, level of welfare of the population, investment attractiveness, and performance of enterprises. The empirical study of determining the most significant channels of influence on the indicators of fiscal effectiveness of the income tax has made it possible to find out: 1) growth of absolute amounts of income tax revenue can be achieved through the use of the investment channel, budget channel and labor market channel; 2) increase in the tax burden on income tax is contributed by the increase in the revenues of the Consolidated Budget, index of industrial producer prices and consumer price index, and increase of the employment rate, while the improvement of the indicators of the overall economic development of the state and investment climate leads to reduction of the tax burden; 3) increase in the fiscal significance of the income tax is contributed by the increase in growth rate of direct investment, level of employment and real wages. Thus, the analysis conducted allowed to identify the channels through which authorities can influence the fiscal effectiveness of the income tax

Corporate Income Tax: Effectiveness in The Context of Public Fiscal Policy and Entrepreneurship Support

The article analyzes the approaches to the definition of the essence and quantitative assessment of the fiscal effectiveness of the income tax. According to the results of the study, it was found out that the fiscal effectiveness of the income tax can be estimated through the indicators of fiscal importance of the tax in the tax revenues of the state (consolidated) budget; tax burden of the tax (in relation to GDP); elasticity of income tax; effective tax rate and tax productivity, etc. The analysis of the dynamics of these indicators over the past few years in Ukraine has allowed us to confirm the low level of fiscal effectiveness and regulatory potential of this tax for Ukraine. One of the possible ways to improve the fiscal effectiveness of the income tax is to use indirect channels of influence, which are represented by the general state of the country's economic development, labor market efficiency, level of welfare of the population, investment attractiveness, and performance of enterprises. The empirical study of determining the most significant channels of influence on the indicators of fiscal effectiveness of the income tax has made it possible to find out: 1) growth of absolute amounts of income tax revenue can be achieved through the use of the investment channel, budget channel and labor market channel; 2) increase in the tax burden on income tax is contributed by the increase in the revenues of the Consolidated Budget, index of industrial producer prices and consumer price index, and increase of the employment rate, while the improvement of the indicators of the overall economic development of the state and investment climate leads to reduction of the tax burden; 3) increase in the fiscal significance of the income tax is contributed by the increase in growth rate of direct investment, level of employment and real wages. Thus, the analysis conducted allowed to identify the channels through which authorities can influence the fiscal effectiveness of the income tax.

Tax Elasticities and the Macroeconomic Effects of Fiscal Policy in Greece

Abstract In this paper I explore the effects of fiscal policy, in particular of both spending and taxes, on the Greek GDP, in the form of multipliers of GDP to a shock on the relevant fiscal instrument. A novel feature of this paper is that I try to estimate the effects of particular spending and tax components on GDP. I use Structural Vector Autoregression models and contemporaneous restrictions to identify fiscal shocks. A methodological difference with traditional SVARs is that I try to estimate the elasticities of the different taxes to GDP using the transitory components of the relevant time series. The results indicate that the macroeconomic effects of different fiscal instruments vary a lot, but spending on average has a higher multiplier than taxes, while personal income tax and fuel tax have the worst impact on the economy. JEL classifications: C32, E62, H2 Keywords: Fiscal Policy, Government Spending, Taxes, Macroeconomics, Structural Vector Autoregressions

Higher Taxes on Less Elastic Goods? Evidence from German Municipalities

German municipalities have substantial autonomy in setting taxes on two distinct tax bases: business profits and property values. We use this setting and a two-step approach to explore whether implemented tax policy is consistent with the seminal inverse-elasticity rule. First, we estimate the tax elasticity of the two tax bases using event-study and generalized differences-in-differences methods based on the universe of municipalities in 1995-2010. Second, we compare the ratio of the observed tax rates for the two tax bases to the ratio of their estimated elasticities. We find that property is not very responsive to variation in tax rates, whereas business profits respond significantly. While this would suggest that property should be taxed at a higher rate, the data show that this not the case: most municipalities impose relatively higher rates on business profits. This suggests that municipality-level taxation in Germany is inconsistent with the inverse-elasticity rule. We provide suggestive evidence that this finding is explained by politician's imprecise expectations about revenue elasticities as well as re-election concerns.

ANALISIS FAKTOR-FAKTOR YANG MEMPENGARUHI PENDAPATAN ASLI DAERAH (PAD) KABUPATEN MIMIKA

This study aims to determine: (1) The potential revenue (PAD) in Mimika Regency Year 2002-2013; (2) Identify the factors that encourage the growth source revenue (PAD) in Mimika. The method used in analyzing the use of quantitative techniques the 4 quadrant approach to tax (shift and share), elasticity component of revenue (PAD). The results showed that, by classification using the shift and share analysis of the potential components of taxes and levies in Mimika, shows the classification Prima namely Public service levies, and levies Licensing Certain, whereas in the classification Potentially the service levies Enterprises, for the classification of Developing the components Restaurant tax, entertainment tax, advertisement tax, street lighting tax and the classification Retarded Hotel Tax Non Metallic Minerals & Rocks. Based on the calculation of tax elasticity against the regional revenue, obtained information that the sources of growth by component Local Revenue (PAD) that is the average of the component Local Tax gain an Elastic (2.91> 1), Retribution gain an Inelastic (0.22 1). So that through this information, the source of regional revenue growth in Mimika courtesy Realization component Local Tax, Income and Asset enterprises.
 
 Keywords : Local Revenue

VAT and its influence on buying behaviour in the Czech Republic

Research background: Value added tax (VAT) is nowadays the most widely used indirect tax system in developed countries. Value added tax, is an instrument of fiscal policy and also a very important source of income for the state budget. It is one of the universal indirect taxes, which has a significant influence on the price level in the country. The European Union's system of value added tax on goods and services is primarily governed by "the 6th VAT Directive" set by the European Commission.
 Purpose of the article: The paper deals with the question of how changes in the rates of value added tax influence the buying behaviours of customers. Buying behaviour could be expressed as decisions of customers about spending their own resources such as money, effort and time, on items related to their consumption in order to meet their needs.
 Methods: The area of the research is the Czech retail food market. Due to the nature of VAT, the influence of this tax on buying behaviour was quantified by price elasticity of demand and indirect tax elasticity of demand, respectively. The article is conceived as a case study, according to the principles of R.K. Yin. The evaluation of buying behaviour is based on real data, which deals with the volumes of sales and sales prices realized in a specific Czech retail chain, which associates more than 200 shops.
 Findings & Value added: The goal of the study is not only to propose the way to identify buyers' response to the changes in the VAT rate, but also to bring the knowledge about customers? response to the realized changes, and finally to propose how to use this knowledge in a development of pricing strategy in case of further changes in the VAT rate.

IMPACT OF CORPORATE TAXATION ON UNEMPLOYMENT

We study the effect of corporate taxation on unemployment utilizing a dynamic panel covering 41 countries over 11 years. The purpose of this article is to investigate how changes in the corporate income tax affect unemployment. We employ system general method of moments (GMM) due to peculiarities of the data set and the endogeneity issues present in the research problem. We find that a rise in the effective average corporate tax rate significantly increases unemployment levels, which directly contradicts past findings of some seminal authors. In addition, the present research supports findings of past studies on capital tax elasticity that obtained similar insights using differing methodologies. This research lays the groundwork for future studies, which may take the same methodology and apply it to even larger international panels. This research implies that international tax competition is affecting unemployment, presumably through its effects on international capital investment. These results provide support for policy makers who may be wary of raising corporate tax rates in countries where capital is especially mobile because of the negative effects which may accumulate to the voting public in the form of unemployment.

Income Taxes, Sorting and the Costs of Housing: Evidence from Municipal Boundaries in Switzerland*

This paper provides novel evidence on the role of income taxes for residential rents and spatial sorting. Drawing on comprehensive apartment-level data, we identify the effects of tax differentials across municipal boundaries in Switzerland. The boundary discontinuity design (BDD) corrects for unobservable location characteristics such as environmental amenities or the access to public goods and thereby reduces the estimated response of housing prices by one half compared to conventional estimates: we identify an income tax elasticity of rents of about 0.26. We complement this approach with census data on local sociodemographic characteristics and show that about one third of this effect can be traced back to a sorting of high-income households into low-tax municipalities. These findings are robust to a matching approach (MBDD) which compares identical residences on opposite sides of the boundary and a number of further sensitivity checks.

The Stability of Tax Elasticities Over the Business Cycle in European Countries

The change of national income brings about tax revenue change. This relationship is embodied in the tax elasticity and usefully estimated both for the long-run and the short-run. In this paper we show that the short-run tax elasticity - the percent change in the tax revenue in response to a one percent change in national income - changes itself according to the business cycle. Using a novel dataset of tax policy reforms on 15 European countries from 1980 to 2013, we estimate a two state Markov-switching regression model to account for possible differences in tax elasticities during different phases of the economy. The estimated difference between elasticities during booms and recessions turns out to be always statistically significant and often even economically so. Results show a clear tendency for short-run elasticities of (i) indirect taxes, (ii) social contributions, and to a lesser extent, (iii) corporate income taxes to increase in recessions. Differences in tax elasticities for personal income taxes are somehow less pronounced. Across countries, results show a tendency for larger elasticities in recessions to prevail.

The Stability of Tax Elasticities Over the Business Cycle in European Countries

We estimate short- and long-run tax elasticities that capture the relationship between changes in national income and tax revenue. We show that the short-run tax elasticity changes according to the business cycle. We estimate a two state Markov-switching regression on a novel dataset of tax policy reforms in 15 European countries from 1980 to 2013, showing that the elasticities during booms and recessions are statistically (and often economically) different. The elasticities of (i) indirect taxes, (ii) social contributions, and (iii) corporate income taxes, tend to be larger during recessions. Tax elasticities for personal income tend to be more stable across the regimes. Estimates of long-run elasticities are in line with existing literature.

Trends and Gradients in Top Tax Elasticities: Cross-Country Evidence, 1900–2014

We compile data spanning the period 1900-2014 and up to 30 countries to study long-run patterns in the tax elasticity of top incomes. Our results show that top tax elasticities vary tremendously over time; they were medium-to-low before 1950, virtually zero during the postwar era up to 1980 and have thereafter increased to unprecedented levels. We document a strong income gradient in tax response within the top, underlining the importance to study even small top groups separately. Several mechanisms are investigated. Tax-driven income shifting between wage and capital income is important in the very top. Wars, financial crises, and country-specific effects and trends have bearing on top elasticities whereas standard macroeconomic factors and indicators of real responses do not.

How does fiscal reform affect the elasticity of income tax revenues? The case of Spain, 2003-2008

How does fiscal reform affect the elasticity of income tax revenues? The case of Spain, 2003-2008

How does fiscal reform affect the elasticity of income tax revenues? The case of Spain, 2003-2008

This paper estimates the extent to which an exogenous change in income affects income tax revenues. We focus on the case of Spain over the period 2003-2008, as the income tax experienced a substantial reform in 2007. Using both an analytical method and a numerical simulation, we find a significant increase in aggregate income tax elasticities from 1.4 for 2003-2006 to around 1.8 for 2007-2008. The sensitivity of results to the presence of housing tax credits, non-equiproportional variations in income, changes in income inequality and fiscal drag is also considered. Finally, some policy implications are drawn.

State Taxation and the Reallocation of Business Activity: Evidence from Establishment-Level Data

In a sample of over 27 million establishments of U.S. firms with activities in more than one state, we estimate the impact of state business taxation on business activity. Only firms organized as subchapter C corporations are subject to the corporate tax code, whereas the income of partnerships, sole-proprietorships, and S corporations is passed through annually to the firm's owners and taxed at individual rates. For C corporations, both employment at existing establishments (intensive margin) and the number of establishments in the state (extensive margin) have corporate tax elasticities of -0.4. Pass-through entities, which serve as a control group for the corporate tax reforms, respond only to the personal tax code, with tax elasticities of -0.2 to -0.3. Around half of the effects are driven by reallocation of productive resources to other states where the treated firms have establishments. Capital shows similar patterns but is 36% less elastic than labor. A narrative approach confirms that the results are robust and strongest in the sample of tax changes that were implemented due to inherited budget deficits, long-run goals, or cross-state variation caused by Federal tax reforms.Institutional subscribers to the NBER working paper series, and residents of developing countries may download this paper without additional charge at www.nber.org.