IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/aea/aecrev/v100y2010i4p1673-94.html

Consumption Taxes and Redistribution

Author

Listed:
  • Isabel Correia

Abstract

This study considers replacing the current US tax system with only a flat tax consumption tax, showing, in contrast to the literature, that such a reform leads to a decline in inequality and increase in welfare for the welfare-poor. The results are obtained from a simple model that identifies the main channels through which the reform affects the economy. It is shown also that these novel results depend on the distribution of wealth and earnings, and that they hold for the relevant empirical distributions. (JEL D31, H23, H25)

Suggested Citation

  • Isabel Correia, 2010. "Consumption Taxes and Redistribution," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 100(4), pages 1673-1694, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:aea:aecrev:v:100:y:2010:i:4:p:1673-94
    Note: DOI: 10.1257/aer.100.4.1673
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.aeaweb.org/articles.php?doi=10.1257/aer.100.4.1673
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: http://www.aeaweb.org/aer/data/sept2010/20070451_data.zip
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to AEA members and institutional subscribers.
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. William M. Gentry & R. Glenn Hubbard, 1997. "Distributional Implications of Introducing a Broad-Based Consumption Tax," NBER Chapters, in: Tax Policy and the Economy, Volume 11, pages 1-48, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    2. Raquel Fernandez & Richard Rogerson, 2003. "Equity and Resources: An Analysis of Education Finance Systems," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 111(4), pages 858-897, August.
    3. Ventura, Gustavo, 1999. "Flat tax reform: A quantitative exploration," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 23(9-10), pages 1425-1458, September.
    4. Isabel H. Correia, 1999. "Fiscal rules of income transformation," Economic Theory, Springer;Society for the Advancement of Economic Theory (SAET), vol. 13(1), pages 199-205.
    5. Correia, Isabel H., 1999. "On the efficiency and equity trade-off," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 44(3), pages 581-603, December.
    6. Isabel Correia & Juan Pablo Nicolini & Pedro Teles, 2008. "Optimal Fiscal and Monetary Policy: Equivalence Results," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 116(1), pages 141-170, February.
    7. Greenwood, Jeremy & Hercowitz, Zvi & Huffman, Gregory W, 1988. "Investment, Capacity Utilization, and the Real Business Cycle," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 78(3), pages 402-417, June.
    8. Krusell, Per & Quadrini, Vincenzo & Rios-Rull, Jose-Victor, 1996. "Are consumption taxes really better than income taxes?," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 37(3), pages 475-503, June.
    9. Joel Slemrod & Jon Bakija, 2004. "Taxing Ourselves, 3rd Edition: A Citizen's Guide to the Debate over Taxes," MIT Press Books, The MIT Press, edition 3, volume 1, number 026269302x, December.
    10. Jorgenson, Dale W & Wilcoxen, Peter J, 1997. "The Long-Run Dynamics of Fundamental Tax Reform," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 87(2), pages 126-132, May.
    11. Santiago Budría & Javier Díaz-Giménez, 2007. "Economic inequality in Spain: the european community household panel dataset," Spanish Economic Review, Springer;Spanish Economic Association, vol. 9(1), pages 1-38, March.
    12. Javier Diaz-Gimenez & Vincenzo Quadrini & José-Víctor Ríos-Rull & Santiago Budria Rodriguez, 2002. "Updated facts on the U.S. distributions of earnings, income, and wealth," Quarterly Review, Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, vol. 26(Sum), pages 2-35.
    13. David Altig & Alan J. Auerbach & Laurence J. Kotlikoff & Kent A. Smetters & Jan Walliser, 1997. "Simulating U.S. Tax Reform," NBER Working Papers 6248, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    14. Daniel R. Feenberg & Andrew W. Mitrusi & James M. Poterba, 1997. "Distributional Effects of Adopting a National Retail Sales Tax," NBER Chapters, in: Tax Policy and the Economy, Volume 11, pages 49-90, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    15. Elhanan Helpman & Efraim Sadka, 1982. "Consumption Versus Wage Taxation," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 97(2), pages 363-372.
    16. ColemanII, Wilbur John, 2000. "Welfare and optimum dynamic taxation of consumption and income," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 76(1), pages 1-39, April.
    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. Berthold U. Wigger, 2004. "On the Intergenerational Incidence of Wage and Consumption Taxes," Journal of Public Economic Theory, Association for Public Economic Theory, vol. 6(1), pages 1-23, February.
    2. Li Qian, 2020. "Dynamic effects of consumption tax reforms with durable consumption," The B.E. Journal of Macroeconomics, De Gruyter, vol. 20(2), pages 1-33, June.
    3. Jonathan Heathcote, 2003. "On the Distributional Effects of Reducing Capital Taxes (previously: Factor Taxation with Heterogeneous Agents)," Working Papers gueconwpa~03-03-22, Georgetown University, Department of Economics.
    4. Fehr, Hans, 1999. "Welfare Effects of Dynamic Tax Reforms," Beiträge zur Finanzwissenschaft, Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen, edition 1, volume 5, number urn:isbn:9783161470165, September.
    5. Ventura, Gustavo, 1999. "Flat tax reform: A quantitative exploration," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 23(9-10), pages 1425-1458, September.
    6. Anagnostopoulos, Alexis & Li, Qian, 2013. "Consumption taxes and precautionary savings," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 119(3), pages 238-242.
    7. Isabel Horta Correia, 2010. "Taxation and Globalization," Working Papers w201020, Banco de Portugal, Economics and Research Department.
    8. Alan D. Viard, 2000. "The transition to consumption taxation, part 1: the impact on existing capital," Economic and Financial Policy Review, Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, issue Q3, pages 2-22.
    9. Laczó, Sarolta & Rossi, Raffaele, 2020. "Time-consistent consumption taxation," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 114(C), pages 194-220.
    10. Gourio, François, 2009. "Is there a majority to support a capital tax cut?," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 33(6), pages 1278-1295, June.
    11. Conesa, Juan Carlos & Li, Bo & Li, Qian, 2020. "Welfare implications of switching to consumption taxation," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 120(C).
    12. Anh D. M. Nguyen & Luisanna Onnis & Raffaele Rossi, 2021. "The Macroeconomic Effects of Income and Consumption Tax Changes," American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, American Economic Association, vol. 13(2), pages 439-466, May.
    13. Martin Gonzalez-Eiras & Dirk Niepelt, 2015. "Politico-Economic Equivalence," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 18(4), pages 843-862, October.
    14. repec:upd:utppwp:065 is not listed on IDEAS
    15. 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.
    16. Shuhei Takahashi & Tomoyuki Nakajima, 2016. "Consumption Taxes and Divisibility of Labor under Incomplete Markets," 2016 Meeting Papers 797, Society for Economic Dynamics.
    17. Daniel R. Carroll & Jim Dolmas & Eric Young, 2015. "Majority Voting: A Quantitative Investigation," Working Papers (Old Series) 1442, Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland.
    18. Heer, Burkhard & Rohrbacher, Stefan, 2021. "Endogenous longevity and optimal tax progressivity," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 79(C).
    19. Lehmus, Markku, 2011. "Labor or consumption taxes? An application with a dynamic general equilibrium model with heterogeneous agents," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 28(4), pages 1984-1992, July.
    20. Guner, Nezih & Lopez-Daneri, Martin & Ventura, Gustavo, 2016. "Heterogeneity and Government revenues: Higher taxes at the top?," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 80(C), pages 69-85.
    21. Javier Díaz-Giménez & Josep Pijoan-Mas, 2006. "Flat Tax Reforms in the U.S.: A Boon for the Income Poor," Working Papers wp2006_0611, CEMFI.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • D31 - Microeconomics - - Distribution - - - Personal Income and Wealth Distribution
    • H23 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Externalities; Redistributive Effects; Environmental Taxes and Subsidies
    • H25 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Business Taxes and Subsidies

    Lists

    This item is featured on the following reading lists, Wikipedia, or ReplicationWiki pages:
    1. Consumption Taxes and Redistribution (AER 2010) in ReplicationWiki
    2. Economic Logic blog

    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:aea:aecrev:v:100:y:2010:i:4:p:1673-94. 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: Michael P. Albert (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/aeaaaea.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.