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Taxation of a digital monopoly platform

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  • Marc Bourreau
  • Bernard Caillaud
  • Romain De Nijs

Abstract

This paper investigates the impact on fiscal revenues of taxing a two‐sided monopolistic platform offering personalized services to users and targeted advertising to sellers, based on the collection of users' personal data. We show that the introduction of a small tax on data collection, which has been proposed in the French context by Collin and Colin, fails to increase fiscal revenues if the value‐added tax (VAT) rate is high enough, due to a tax base interdependence effect between the two taxes. Under a supermodularity condition on the platform's profit function as a function of its prices, this result generalizes to any per‐unit tax. However, in some cases, an ad valorem tax on subscriptions or on advertising may raise fiscal revenues, irrespective of the VAT rate, as well as welfare.

Suggested Citation

  • Marc Bourreau & Bernard Caillaud & Romain De Nijs, 2018. "Taxation of a digital monopoly platform," Journal of Public Economic Theory, Association for Public Economic Theory, vol. 20(1), pages 40-51, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:jpbect:v:20:y:2018:i:1:p:40-51
    DOI: 10.1111/jpet.12255
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    Cited by:

    1. Anna D'Annunzio & Mohammed Mardan & Antonio Russo, 2020. "Multi‐part tariffs and differentiated commodity taxation," RAND Journal of Economics, RAND Corporation, vol. 51(3), pages 786-804, September.
    2. Diego d’Andria, 2023. "Effects of an ad valorem Web Tax in a Cournot-Nash market for digital advertising," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 30(1), pages 20-42, February.
    3. Dimakopoulos, Philipp & Sudaric, Slobodan, 2018. "Privacy and Platform Competition," Rationality and Competition Discussion Paper Series 67, CRC TRR 190 Rationality and Competition.
    4. Juan Manuel Sanchez‐Cartas & Gonzalo León, 2021. "Multisided Platforms And Markets: A Survey Of The Theoretical Literature," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 35(2), pages 452-487, April.
    5. Lefouili, Yassine & Toh, Ying Lei & Madio, Leonardo, 2017. "Privacy Regulation and Quality-Enhancing Innovation," TSE Working Papers 17-795, Toulouse School of Economics (TSE), revised Jul 2023.
    6. Leonardo Madio, 2023. "Content Moderation and Advertising in Social Media Platforms," "Marco Fanno" Working Papers 0297, Dipartimento di Scienze Economiche "Marco Fanno".
    7. Armando José Garcia Pires, 2023. "Ad-Valorem Taxes, Prices and Content Diversification in the News Market," Games, MDPI, vol. 14(2), pages 1-28, March.
    8. Francis Bloch & Gabrielle Demange, 2019. "Profit-Sharing Rules and the Taxation of Multinational Internet Platforms," CESifo Working Paper Series 7818, CESifo.
    9. Francis Bloch & Gabrielle Demange, 2021. "Profit-splitting rules and the taxation of multinational digital platforms," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 28(4), pages 855-889, August.
    10. Choi, Jay Pil & Jeon, Doh-Shin & Kim, Byung-Cheol, 2019. "Privacy and personal data collection with information externalities," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 173(C), pages 113-124.
    11. Abrardi, Laura & Cambini, Carlo, 2022. "Carpe Data: Protecting online privacy with naive users," Information Economics and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 60(C).
    12. Philipp Dimakopoulos & Slobodan Sudaric, 2017. "Privacy and Platform Competition," Working Papers 2017003, Berlin Doctoral Program in Economics and Management Science (BDPEMS).
    13. Eric K. Clemons & Maximilian Schreieck & Sebastian Hermes & Frantz Rowe & Helmut Krcmar, 2022. "The Cooperation Paradox," Electronic Markets, Springer;IIM University of St. Gallen, vol. 32(2), pages 459-471, June.
    14. Lefouili, Yassine & Toh, Ying Lei, 2017. "Privacy and Quality," IDEI Working Papers 867, Institut d'Économie Industrielle (IDEI), Toulouse, revised Jan 2018.
    15. Juan Manuel Sánchez-Cartas, 2021. "Intellectual property and taxation of digital platforms," Journal of Economics, Springer, vol. 132(3), pages 197-221, April.
    16. Sangita Poddar & Tanmoyee Banerjee(Chatterjee) & Swapnendu Banerjee, 2023. "Taxation on duopoly e-commerce platforms and their search environments," SN Business & Economics, Springer, vol. 3(8), pages 1-20, August.
    17. Dimakopoulos, Philipp D. & Sudaric, Slobodan, 2018. "Privacy and platform competition," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 61(C), pages 686-713.
    18. KAO Kuo-Feng & MUKUNOKI Hiroshi, 2022. "Optimal Tariffs on a Monopoly Platform in Two-sided Markets," Discussion papers 22066, Research Institute of Economy, Trade and Industry (RIETI).

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