This paper assesses the effects of the changes of the Value Added Tax (VAT) rates in Italy for the period 1988-1997, questioning their overall redistributive impact compared with an equal-revenue proportional tax rate. By using the theory of marginal tax reforms and the AWARETAX microsimulation model, it is shown that most real relative price changes due to the selective use of VAT rates have caused a welfare loss which is increasingly negative in the degree of inequality aversion. It means that many VAT changes implemented during the last decade have been welfare inferior to a distributionally neutral proportional change of all VAT rates providing the same revenue.
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Paper provided by Sapienza University of Rome, Department of Public Economics in its series Working Papers with number
40.
Find related papers by JEL classification: D12 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - Consumer Economics: Empirical Analysis D63 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics - - - Equity, Justice, Inequality, and Other Normative Criteria and Measurement H23 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Externalities; Redistributive Effects; Environmental Taxes and Subsidies
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