IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/cgt/wpaper/2017-4.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Domestic Taxes and Export Composition: Evidence from VAT Adoption Worldwide

Author

Abstract

In principle, a VAT should be neutral with regards to both the level and composition of exports. In practice, this may not be the case because exporters in many countries receive incomplete VAT refunds. When VAT refunds are incomplete, the exports of industries that rely heavily on intermediate goods are especially likely to be negatively affected by a VAT. Motivated by these considerations, this paper uses trade data for over 100 countries spanning 1962-2015 to evaluate the differential effect of the VAT across industries. I find that an industry with a 10% point higher intermediate goods share of output sees a decline in exports of over 8% relative to an industry with a lower share. This effect is particularly pronounced for low-income countries and essentially absent for high-income countries.

Suggested Citation

  • Sharma, Rishi, 2017. "Domestic Taxes and Export Composition: Evidence from VAT Adoption Worldwide," Working Papers 2017-4, Department of Economics, Colgate University, revised 02 Jul 2017.
    • Handle: RePEc:cgt:wpaper:2017-4
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://commons.colgate.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1054&context=econ_facschol
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Robert C. Feenstra & Robert Inklaar & Marcel P. Timmer, 2015. "The Next Generation of the Penn World Table," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 105(10), pages 3150-3182, October.
    2. Mr. Michael Keen & Mr. Murtaza H Syed, 2006. "Domestic Taxes and International Trade: Some Evidence," IMF Working Papers 2006/047, International Monetary Fund.
    3. repec:wyi:journl:002196 is not listed on IDEAS
    4. Rajan, Raghuram G & Zingales, Luigi, 1998. "Financial Dependence and Growth," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 88(3), pages 559-586, June.
    5. Nunn, Nathan & Trefler, Daniel, 2014. "Domestic Institutions as a Source of Comparative Advantage," Handbook of International Economics, in: Gopinath, G. & Helpman, . & Rogoff, K. (ed.), Handbook of International Economics, edition 1, volume 4, chapter 0, pages 263-315, Elsevier.
    6. John Romalis, 2004. "Factor Proportions and the Structure of Commodity Trade," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 94(1), pages 67-97, March.
    7. Andrei A. Levchenko, 2007. "Institutional Quality and International Trade," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 74(3), pages 791-819.
    8. Chor, Davin, 2010. "Unpacking sources of comparative advantage: A quantitative approach," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 82(2), pages 152-167, November.
    9. Cai, Jie & Stoyanov, Andrey, 2016. "Population aging and comparative advantage," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 102(C), pages 1-21.
    10. Peter Debaere, 2014. "The Global Economics of Water: Is Water a Source of Comparative Advantage?," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 6(2), pages 32-48, April.
    11. 강병수 & 김병재 & 신종칠 & Myung Soo Kang & Byoung Jai Kim & Jong Chil Shin, 2007. "Measuring Consumer-Brand Relationship Quality," Journal of Global Scholars of Marketing Science, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 17(2), pages 111-131, June.
    12. Mr. Graham Harrison & Russell Krelove, 2005. "VAT Refunds: A Review of Country Experience," IMF Working Papers 2005/218, International Monetary Fund.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Kohler, Wilhelm & Kukharskyy, Bohdan, 2019. "Offshoring under uncertainty," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 118(C), pages 158-180.
    2. Antonio Ciccone & Elias Papaioannou, 2016. "Estimating Cross-Industry Cross-Country Interaction Models Using Benchmark Industry Characteristics," NBER Working Papers 22368, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    3. Crinò, Rosario & Ogliari, Laura, 2017. "Financial imperfections, product quality, and international trade," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 104(C), pages 63-84.
    4. Castellares, Renzo & Salas, Jorge, 2019. "Contractual imperfections and the impact of crises on trade: Evidence from industry-level data," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 116(C), pages 33-49.
    5. Cai, Jie & Stoyanov, Andrey, 2023. "Progressive income tax and comparative advantage in trade," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 129(C).
    6. Idrisova, Vittoria (Идрисова, Виттория), 2017. "Determinants of Value-Added Exports: The Role of Import Demand Factors [Детерминанты Экспорта Добавленной Стоимости: Роль Факторов Спроса На Импорт]," Working Papers 051715, Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration.
    7. Florent Silve & Alexander Plekhanov, 2018. "Institutions, innovation and growth : Evidence from industry data," The Economics of Transition, The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, vol. 26(3), pages 335-362, July.
    8. Beverelli, Cosimo & Fiorini, Matteo & Hoekman, Bernard, 2017. "Services trade policy and manufacturing productivity: The role of institutions," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 104(C), pages 166-182.
    9. Cai, Jie & Stoyanov, Andrey, 2016. "Population aging and comparative advantage," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 102(C), pages 1-21.
    10. Fernandes, Ana M. & Mattoo, Aaditya & Nguyen, Huy & Schiffbauer, Marc, 2019. "The internet and Chinese exports in the pre-ali baba era," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 138(C), pages 57-76.
    11. Keith E. Maskus & Lei Yang, 2018. "Domestic patent rights, access to technologies and the structure of exports," Canadian Journal of Economics/Revue canadienne d'économique, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 51(2), pages 483-509, May.
    12. Tang, Heiwai, 2012. "Labor market institutions, firm-specific skills, and trade patterns," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 87(2), pages 337-351.
    13. Wilhelm Kohler & Bohdan Kukharskyy, 2018. "Offshoring under Uncertainty," CESifo Working Paper Series 7173, CESifo.
    14. Agnes Kügler & Andreas Reinstaller & Klaus S. Friesenbichler, 2023. "Can value chain integration explain the diverging economic performance within the EU?," Economia e Politica Industriale: Journal of Industrial and Business Economics, Springer;Associazione Amici di Economia e Politica Industriale, vol. 50(1), pages 25-47, March.
    15. Salamat Ali & Chris Milner, 2022. "Trade costs and the composition of developing countries' exports," Review of Development Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 26(4), pages 1971-1996, November.
    16. Åsa Johansson & Eduardo Olaberría, 2014. "Global Trade and Specialisation Patterns Over the Next 50 Years," OECD Economic Policy Papers 10, OECD Publishing.
    17. Jaimovich, Esteban, 2019. "Roadways, input sourcing, and patterns of specialization," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 120(C).
    18. Nunn, Nathan & Trefler, Daniel, 2014. "Domestic Institutions as a Source of Comparative Advantage," Handbook of International Economics, in: Gopinath, G. & Helpman, . & Rogoff, K. (ed.), Handbook of International Economics, edition 1, volume 4, chapter 0, pages 263-315, Elsevier.
    19. Åsa Johansson & Eduardo Olaberría, 2014. "Long-term Patterns of Trade and Specialisation," OECD Economics Department Working Papers 1136, OECD Publishing.
    20. Jiajie Yu & Shuang Meng, 2023. "How Does Trade Openness Affect Output Growth? A Perspective from the Input Diversity," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(11), pages 1-21, June.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    value-added tax; exports; export composition;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • H87 - Public Economics - - Miscellaneous Issues - - - International Fiscal Issues; International Public Goods
    • H25 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Business Taxes and Subsidies
    • F10 - International Economics - - Trade - - - General
    • F13 - International Economics - - Trade - - - Trade Policy; International Trade Organizations
    • F14 - International Economics - - Trade - - - Empirical Studies of Trade

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:cgt:wpaper:2017-4. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Chad Sparber (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/declgus.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.