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In A World Without Borders: The Impact Of Taxes On Internet Commerce

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Author Info
Austan Goolsbee

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Abstract

The rapid rise in sales over the Internet and the fact that most Internet buyers pay no sales tax has ignited a considerable debate over taxes and the Internet. This paper uses new data on the purchase decisions of approximately 25,000 online users to examine the effect of local sales taxes on Internet commerce. The results suggest that, controlling for observable characteristics, people living in high sales taxes locations are significantly more likely to buy online. The results are quite robust and cannot be explained by unobserved technological sophistication, shopping costs, or other alternative explanations. The magnitudes in the paper suggest that applying existing sales taxes to Internet commerce might reduce the number of online buyers by up to 24 percent. © 2000 the President and Fellows of Harvard College and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology

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Publisher Info
Article provided by MIT Press in its journal The Quarterly Journal of Economics.

Volume (Year): 115 (2000)
Issue (Month): 2 (May)
Pages: 561-576
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Handle: RePEc:tpr:qjecon:v:115:y:2000:i:2:p:561-576

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References listed on IDEAS
Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:
  1. Austan Goolsbee, 1998. "Investment Tax Incentives, Prices, And The Supply Of Capital Goods," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, MIT Press, vol. 113(1), pages 121-148, February. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  2. Oecd, 1998. "Electronic Commerce: Prices and Consumer Issues for Three Products: Books, Compact Discs and Software," OECD Digital Economy Papers 32, OECD, Directorate for Science, Technology and Industry. [Downloadable!]
  3. Timothy J. Besley & Harvey S. Rosen, 1998. "Sales Taxes and Prices: An Empirical Analysis," NBER Working Papers 6667, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  4. Goolsbee, Austan & Klenow, Peter J, 2002. "Evidence on Learning and Network Externalities in the Diffusion of Home Computers," Journal of Law & Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 45(2), pages 317-43, October.
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  5. Galbraith, John W. & Kaiserman, Murray, 1997. "Taxation, smuggling and demand for cigarettes in Canada: Evidence from time-series data," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 16(3), pages 287-301, June. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  6. Tom Downes & Shane Greenstein, 2000. "Universal Access and Local Commercial Internet Markets," Discussion Papers Series, Department of Economics, Tufts University 0017, Department of Economics, Tufts University. [Downloadable!]
  7. Gordon, Roger H, 1983. "An Optimal Taxation Approach to Fiscal Federalism," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, MIT Press, vol. 98(4), pages 567-86, November. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  8. Kanbur, Ravi & Keen, Michael, 1993. "Jeux Sans Frontieres: Tax Competition and Tax Coordination When Countries Differ in Size," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 83(4), pages 877-92, September. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  9. Trandel, Gregory A., 1992. "Evading the use tax on cross-border sales : Pricing and welfare effects," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 49(3), pages 313-331, December. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  10. Thomas J. Holmes, 1998. "The Effect of State Policies on the Location of Manufacturing: Evidence from State Borders," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 106(4), pages 667-705, August. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  11. Mintz, Jack & Tulkens, Henry, 1986. "Commodity tax competition between member states of a federation: equilibrium and efficiency," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 29(2), pages 133-172, March. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  12. Jeffrey K. MacKie-Mason & Hal R. Varian, 1994. "Pricing the Internet," Computational Economics 9401002, EconWPA. [Downloadable!]
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  13. Shane Greenstein, 1998. "Universal Service in the Digital Age: The Commercialization and Geography of U.S. Internet Access," NBER Working Papers 6453, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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