IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/fip/fedgfe/1997-38.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

The effects of interest rates and taxes on new car prices

Author

Listed:
  • Maura P. Doyle

Abstract

Utilizing the Consumer Expenditure Survey and state-level variation in taxes, this study finds that prices for most models of new cars shift by more than the amount of a sales tax. The evidence of an overshifting of prices offers support for the recent models of tax incidence in imperfectly competitive markets. The results also suggest that changes in the after-tax interest rate have offsetting effects on new car prices; a one percentage point increase in the after-tax real interest rate will prompt, on average, a mark-down of $106.

Suggested Citation

  • Maura P. Doyle, 1997. "The effects of interest rates and taxes on new car prices," Finance and Economics Discussion Series 1997-38, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.).
    • Handle: RePEc:fip:fedgfe:1997-38
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.federalreserve.gov/pubs/feds/1997/199738/199738abs.html
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: http://www.federalreserve.gov/pubs/feds/1997/199738/199738pap.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Delipalla, Sofia & Keen, Michael, 1992. "The comparison between ad valorem and specific taxation under imperfect competition," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 49(3), pages 351-367, December.
    2. Deaton, A. & Ng, S., 1996. "Parametric and Nonparametric Approaches to Price and Tax Reform," Cahiers de recherche 9601, Centre interuniversitaire de recherche en économie quantitative, CIREQ.
    3. Goldberg, Pinelopi Koujianou, 1995. "Product Differentiation and Oligopoly in International Markets: The Case of the U.S. Automobile Industry," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 63(4), pages 891-951, July.
    4. Timothy F. Bresnahan & Peter C. Reiss, 1985. "Dealer and Manufacturer Margins," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 16(2), pages 253-268, Summer.
    5. Michael L. Katz & Harvey S. Rosen, 1985. "Tax Analysis in an Oligopoly Model," Public Finance Review, , vol. 13(1), pages 3-20, January.
    6. Ernst R. Berndt & Ann F. Friedlaender & Judy Shaw-Er Wang Chiang, 1990. "Interdependent Pricing and Markup Behavior: An Empirical Analysis of GM, Ford and Chrysler," NBER Working Papers 3396, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    7. Bresnahan, Timothy F., 1981. "Departures from marginal-cost pricing in the American automobile industry : Estimates for 1977-1978," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 17(2), pages 201-227, November.
    8. Goldberg, Pinelopi Koujianou, 1996. "Dealer Price Discrimination in New Car Purchases: Evidence from the Consumer Expenditure Survey," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 104(3), pages 622-654, June.
    9. Daniel Feenberg & Elisabeth Coutts, 1993. "An introduction to the TAXSIM model," Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 12(1), pages 189-194.
    10. Feldstein, Martin S & Taylor, Amy, 1976. "The Income Tax and Charitable Contributions," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 44(6), pages 1201-1222, November.
    11. A. J. Auerbach & M. Feldstein (ed.), 1987. "Handbook of Public Economics," Handbook of Public Economics, Elsevier, edition 1, volume 2, number 2.
    12. Smith, Richard L, II, 1982. "Franchise Regulation: An Economic Analysis of State Restrictions on Automobile Distribution," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 25(1), pages 125-157, April.
    13. Mankiw, N. Gregory, 1982. "Hall's consumption hypothesis and durable goods," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 10(3), pages 417-425.
    14. Orazio P. Attanasio, 1995. "Consumer Durables and Inertial Behavior: Estimation and Aggregation of (S,s) Rules," NBER Working Papers 5282, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    15. Bernanke, Ben, 1985. "Adjustment costs, durables, and aggregate consumption," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 15(1), pages 41-68, January.
    16. Sullivan, Daniel, 1985. "Testing Hypotheses about Firm Behavior in the Cigarette Industry," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 93(3), pages 586-598, June.
    17. David M. Cutler & Lawrence F. Katz, 1991. "Macroeconomic Performance and the Disadvantaged," Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, Economic Studies Program, The Brookings Institution, vol. 22(2), pages 1-74.
    18. Berry, Steven & Levinsohn, James & Pakes, Ariel, 1995. "Automobile Prices in Market Equilibrium," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 63(4), pages 841-890, July.
    19. Besley, Timothy, 1989. "Commodity taxation and imperfect competition : A note on the effects of entry," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 40(3), pages 359-367, December.
    20. Mankiw, N Gregory, 1985. "Consumer Durables and the Real Interest Rate," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 67(3), pages 353-362, August.
    21. Ben S. Bernanke, 1984. "Permanent Income, Liquidity, and Expenditure on Automobiles: Evidence from Panel Data," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 99(3), pages 587-614.
    22. Stern, Nicholas, 1987. "The effects of taxation, price control and government contracts in oligopoly and monopolistic competition," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 32(2), pages 133-158, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Fullerton, Don & Metcalf, Gilbert E., 2002. "Tax incidence," Handbook of Public Economics, in: A. J. Auerbach & M. Feldstein (ed.), Handbook of Public Economics, edition 1, volume 4, chapter 26, pages 1787-1872, Elsevier.
    2. Steve Mccorriston & Ian Sheldon, 2005. "Export Competition and the Remission of Domestic Environmental Taxes," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 12(5), pages 627-637, September.
    3. Dillon Alleyne, 2007. "The Evolution of Jamaica’s Tax Burden," Public Finance Review, , vol. 35(1), pages 150-171, January.

    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. Daniel Aaronson, 2001. "Price Pass-Through And The Minimum Wage," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 83(1), pages 158-169, February.
    2. Pablo Blanchard, 2023. "Mark ups and pass-through in small and medium retailers for rice, tomato sauce and oil," Documentos de Trabajo (working papers) 23-20, Instituto de Economía - IECON.
    3. Anderson, Simon P. & de Palma, Andre & Kreider, Brent, 2001. "Tax incidence in differentiated product oligopoly," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 81(2), pages 173-192, August.
    4. Fullerton, Don & Metcalf, Gilbert E., 2002. "Tax incidence," Handbook of Public Economics, in: A. J. Auerbach & M. Feldstein (ed.), Handbook of Public Economics, edition 1, volume 4, chapter 26, pages 1787-1872, Elsevier.
    5. Clément Carbonnier, 2006. "Who pays commodity taxes? Evidence from French reforms, 1987-1999," PSE Working Papers halshs-00590515, HAL.
    6. Panayiota Lyssiotou & Elena Savva, 2021. "Who pays taxes on basic foodstuffs? Evidence from broadening the VAT base," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 28(1), pages 212-247, February.
    7. Carbonnier, Clement, 2007. "Who pays sales taxes? Evidence from French VAT reforms, 1987-1999," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 91(5-6), pages 1219-1229, June.
    8. Adam Copeland & Wendy Dunn & George Hall, 2005. "Prices, Production and Inventories over the Automotive Model Year," NBER Working Papers 11257, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    9. Devereux, Michael P. & Lanot, Gauthier, 2003. "Measuring tax incidence: an application to mortgage provision in the UK," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 87(7-8), pages 1747-1778, August.
    10. Pranvera Shehaj & Martin Zagler, 2023. "Motor Vehicle Registration Taxes (MVRT) across EU countries: MNEs’ profitability and the role of market concentration," European Journal of Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 56(1), pages 155-198, August.
    11. Ronald W.Cotterill & Donghun Kim, 2006. "Market Structure, Cost Pass-Through and Welfare with Differentiated Products," Working Papers EMS_2006_05, Research Institute, International University of Japan.
    12. Orazio P. Attanasio, 1998. "Consumption Demand," NBER Working Papers 6466, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    13. Clément Carbonnier, 2005. "Is Tax Shifting Asymmetric? Evidence from French VAT reforms, 1995-2000," Working Papers halshs-00590719, HAL.
    14. Asker, John, 2008. "Subsidizing (and taxing) business procurement," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 92(7), pages 1629-1643, July.
    15. Franz W. Wagner & Stefan Weber, 2016. "Wird die Umsatzsteuer überwälzt? [Do Firms Pass on VAT?]," Schmalenbach Journal of Business Research, Springer, vol. 68(4), pages 401-421, December.
    16. Fershtman, C. & Gandal, N. & Markovich, S., 1997. "Estimating the Effect of Tax Reform in Differentiated Product Oligopolistic Markets," Papers 29-97, Tel Aviv.
    17. Sharat Ganapati & Joseph S. Shapiro & Reed Walker, 2016. "The Incidence of Carbon Taxes in U.S. Manufacturing: Lessons from Energy Cost Pass-through," Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers 2038R3, Cowles Foundation for Research in Economics, Yale University, revised Mar 2018.
    18. Kim, Donghun, 2004. "Market Structure, Price Pass-Through and Welfare with Differentiated Products," Research Reports 25157, University of Connecticut, Food Marketing Policy Center.
    19. Holloway, Garth J., 1994. "Consistent Comparative Statics For The Food Industries," 1994 Annual Meeting, August 7-10, San Diego, California 271418, American Agricultural Economics Association (New Name 2008: Agricultural and Applied Economics Association).
    20. Sharat Ganapati & Joseph S. Shapiro & Reed Walker, 2020. "Energy Cost Pass-Through in US Manufacturing: Estimates and Implications for Carbon Taxes," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 12(2), pages 303-342, April.

    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:fip:fedgfe:1997-38. 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: Ryan Wolfslayer ; Keisha Fournillier (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/frbgvus.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.