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Consumption Taxes in a Life-Cycle Framework: Are Sin Taxes Regressive?

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Author Info
Lyon, Andrew B
Schwab, Robert M

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Abstract

We construct measures of tax incidence over the life-cycle and compare these measures to traditional measures based on annual data. Annual measures of the incidence of taxes on consumption goods may differ from life-cycle measures for three reasons. First, annual measures of income reflect transitory components which should have smaller effects on consumption than permanent changes in income. Second, income measured in a single period differs from lifetime income due to age-related differences in earnings. Third, consumption of certain items follows life-cycle patterns independent of changes in income. Surprisingly, we find that these effects cause little change in the assessment of the incidence of taxes on cigarettes. For alcohol, we find that a tax on its consumption is slightly less regressive when measured with respect to lifetime income than when measured with respect to annual income. Copyright 1995 by MIT Press.

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Publisher Info
Article provided by MIT Press in its journal Review of Economics & Statistics.

Volume (Year): 77 (1995)
Issue (Month): 3 (August)
Pages: 389-406
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Handle: RePEc:tpr:restat:v:77:y:1995:i:3:p:389-406

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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. Poterba, James M, 1989. "Lifetime Incidence and the Distributional Burden of Excise Taxes," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 79(2), pages 325-30, May. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  2. James M. Poterba, 1991. "Is the Gasoline Tax Regressive?," NBER Working Papers 3578, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  3. Sean Becketti & William Gould & Lee Lillard & Finis Welch, 1985. "The Panel Study of Income Dynamics After Fourteen Years: An Evaluation," UCLA Economics Working Papers 361, UCLA Department of Economics. [Downloadable!]
  4. Becketti, Sean, et al, 1988. "The Panel Study of Income Dynamics after Fourteen Years: An Evaluatio n," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 6(4), pages 472-92, October. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  5. Suits, Daniel B, 1977. "Measurement of Tax Progressivity," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 67(4), pages 747-52, September. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  6. Robert E. Hall & Frederic S. Mishkin, 1982. "The Sensitivity of Consumption to Transitory Income: Estimates from Panel Data on Households," NBER Working Papers 0505, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  7. Lee, Lung-Fei & Trost, Robert P., 1978. "Estimation of some limited dependent variable models with application to housing demand," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 8(3), pages 357-382, December. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  8. Don Fullerton & Gilbert E. Metcalf, 2001. "Tax Incidence," Discussion Papers Series, Department of Economics, Tufts University 0106, Department of Economics, Tufts University. [Downloadable!]
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  9. Davies, James B & St-Hilaire, France & Whalley, John, 1984. "Some Calculations of Lifetime Tax Incidence," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 74(4), pages 633-49, September. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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(explanations, 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. Don Fullerton & Diane Lim Rogers, 1994. "Distributional Effects on a Lifetime Basis," NBER Working Papers 4862, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  2. Parry, Ian W.H. & Laxminarayan, Ramanan & West, Sarah E., 2006. "Fiscal and Externality Rationales for Alcohol Taxes," Discussion Papers dp-06-51, Resources For the Future. [Downloadable!]
  3. Nordblom, Katarina, 2006. "The Complex Attitudes to Alcohol Taxation," Working Papers in Economics 207, Göteborg University, Department of Economics. [Downloadable!]
  4. Don Fullerton & Diane Lim Rogers, 1992. "Lifetime vs. Annual Perspectives on Tax Incidence," NBER Working Papers 3750, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  5. Greg Colman & Dahlia K. Remler, 2004. "Vertical Equity Consequences of Very High Cigarette Tax Increases: If the Poor are the Ones Smoking, How Could Cigarette Tax Increases be Progressive?," NBER Working Papers 10906, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  6. Erik Caspersen & Gilbert Metcalf, 1995. "Is A Value Added Tax Progressive? Annual Versus Lifetime Incidence Measures," NBER Working Papers 4387, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  7. Burtraw, Dallas & Sweeney, Richard & Walls, Margaret, 2008. "The Incidence of U.S. Climate Policy: Where You Stand Depends on Where You Sit," Discussion Papers dp-08-28, Resources For the Future. [Downloadable!]
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