IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bic/journl/v4y2004i2p25-38.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Optimal Commodity Taxes with Tourist Demand

Author

Listed:
  • Sinikka Hämäläinen

    (Department of Economics, University of Tampere)

Abstract

The existence of country-specific commodities that have to be bought and consumed locally plays an essential role in tourism. This paper discusses how optimal taxation rules are modified when the taxable goods include goods demanded by tourists. The main point is that tax rates can be manipulated to shift some of the tax burden from domestic residents onto tourists. There is indeed a reason why an optimum taxation approach is useful for tourism, as the goods are consumed inside the host country, and discrimination is difficult. This paper combines several scenarios where tourism may be relevant for optimal tax policy. It begins by considering the determinants of tourist demand. Then, the well-known optimal commodity tax rules are modified to include the effect of foreign demand. Tourists are assumed to trade at the same prices as domestic consumers, but to have zero welfare weight. Thus, the government must balance the desire to tax tourists with the deadweight loss suffered by its own residents. The government should raise some taxes, when tourism begins. Tourism-oriented goods with low price elasticities should bear the highest taxes. However, tourism-related pollution cannot be taxed at prohibitive rates or tourist revenue would be lost altogether. Possible extensions are introduced, for example competition among destination countries. Should tourism dependent countries that are geographical neighbours and substitutes have closely linked tax systems? What kind of tax policy is best when the tourist destinations serve as complements to each other?

Suggested Citation

  • Sinikka Hämäläinen, 2004. "Optimal Commodity Taxes with Tourist Demand," Baltic Journal of Economics, Baltic International Centre for Economic Policy Studies, vol. 4(2), pages 25-38, July.
  • Handle: RePEc:bic:journl:v:4:y:2004:i:2:p:25-38
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/epdf/10.1080/1406099X.2004.10840409
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Chow, Peter C. Y., 1987. "Causality between export growth and industrial development : Empirial evidence from the NICs," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 26(1), pages 55-63, June.
    2. Alfaro, Laura & Chanda, Areendam & Kalemli-Ozcan, Sebnem & Sayek, Selin, 2004. "FDI and economic growth: the role of local financial markets," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 64(1), pages 89-112, October.
    3. Basu, Parantap & McLeod, Darryl, 1991. "Terms of trade fluctuations and economic growth in developing economies," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 37(1-2), pages 89-110, November.
    4. De Gregorio, Jose, 1992. "The effects of inflation on economic growth : Lessons from Latin America," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 36(2-3), pages 417-425, April.
    5. De Gregorio, Jose, 1992. "Economic growth in Latin America," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 39(1), pages 59-84, July.
    6. Bardhan, Pranab K & Lewis, Sydney, 1970. "Models of Growth with Imported Inputs," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 37(148), pages 373-385, November.
    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. Peter J. Lambert, 2004. "Income Taxation and Equity," Baltic Journal of Economics, Baltic International Centre for Economic Policy Studies, vol. 4(2), pages 39-54, July.
    2. Jorgen Drud Hansen & Morten Hansen, 2004. "Are the Current Account Deficits in the Baltic States Sustainable?," Baltic Journal of Economics, Baltic International Centre for Economic Policy Studies, vol. 4(2), pages 5-24, July.
    3. Dritsaki Chaido & Vazakidis Athanasios & Adamopoulos Antonios, 2004. "Exports, Investments and Economic Growth: an Empirical Investigation of the Three Baltic Countries," Baltic Journal of Economics, Baltic International Centre for Economic Policy Studies, vol. 4(2), pages 72-79, July.
    4. Leoš Vitek & Jan Pavel & Jana Krbova, 2004. "Effectiveness of the Czech Tax System," Baltic Journal of Economics, Baltic International Centre for Economic Policy Studies, vol. 4(2), pages 55-71, July.
    5. Delgado, Michael S. & McCloud, Nadine & Kumbhakar, Subal C., 2014. "A generalized empirical model of corruption, foreign direct investment, and growth," Journal of Macroeconomics, Elsevier, vol. 42(C), pages 298-316.
    6. Dalila NICET-CHENAF & Eric ROUGIER, 2009. "FDI and growth: A new look at a still puzzling issue," Cahiers du GREThA (2007-2019) 2009-13, Groupe de Recherche en Economie Théorique et Appliquée (GREThA).
    7. Muhammad Shahbaz & Mohammad Mafizur Rahman, 2012. "The Dynamic of Financial Development, Imports, Foreign Direct Investment and Economic Growth: Cointegration and Causality Analysis in Pakistan," Global Business Review, International Management Institute, vol. 13(2), pages 201-219, June.
    8. Magazzino, Cosimo & Mele, Marco, 2022. "Can a change in FDI accelerate GDP growth? Time-series and ANNs evidence on Malta," The Journal of Economic Asymmetries, Elsevier, vol. 25(C).
    9. Ketteni, Elena & Kottaridi, Constantina, 2019. "The impact of regulations on the FDI-growth nexus within the institution-based view: A nonlinear specification with varying coefficients," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 28(3), pages 415-427.
    10. Alaya MAROUANE & Dalila NICET-CHENAF & Eric ROUGIER, 2008. "The law of growth and attraction: an endogenous model of absorptive capacities, FDI and income for MENA countries," Cahiers du GREThA (2007-2019) 2008-27, Groupe de Recherche en Economie Théorique et Appliquée (GREThA).
    11. Eduardo Fern·ndez-Arias & Peter Montiel, 2001. "Reform and Growth in Latin America: All Pain, No Gain?," IMF Staff Papers, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 48(3), pages 1-5.
    12. Saten Kumar & Don J. Webber & Geoff Perry, 2012. "Real wages, inflation and labour productivity in Australia," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 44(23), pages 2945-2954, August.
    13. Sahoo, Pravakar & Dash, Ranjan Kumar, 2014. "India's surge in modern services exports: Empirics for policy," Journal of Policy Modeling, Elsevier, vol. 36(6), pages 1082-1100.
    14. Elizabeth Asiedu, 2006. "Foreign Direct Investment in Africa: The Role of Natural Resources, Market Size, Government Policy, Institutions and Political Instability," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(1), pages 63-77, January.
    15. John S. Irons, "undated". "Potential Output as a Common Cause for Inflation and Output Growth: A Cautionary Note to the Empirical Growth Literature," Home Pages _002, Massachussets Institute of Technology, Economics.
    16. Fadzil, Atikah & Masih, Mansur, 2017. "Does export lead growth? evidence from Japan," MPRA Paper 109290, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    17. Argentino Pessoa, 2008. "Multinational Corporations, Foreign Investment, and Royalties and License Fees: Effects on Host-Country Total Factor Productivity," Notas Económicas, Faculty of Economics, University of Coimbra, issue 28, pages 6-31, December.
    18. Nader Nazmi & Julio Revilla, 2011. "Brazil’s growth performance: a comparative perspective to the Asian giants," Economic Change and Restructuring, Springer, vol. 44(1), pages 7-24, April.
    19. Mohammad Mafizur Rahman & Muhammad Shahbaz, 2013. "Do Imports and Foreign Capital Inflows Lead Economic Growth? Cointegration and Causality Analysis in Pakistan," South Asia Economic Journal, Institute of Policy Studies of Sri Lanka, vol. 14(1), pages 59-81, March.
    20. Muhammad Azmat Hayat & Huma Ghulam & Maryam Batool & Muhammad Zahid Naeem & Abdullah Ejaz & Cristi Spulbar & Ramona Birau, 2021. "Investigating the Causal Linkages among Inflation, Interest Rate, and Economic Growth in Pakistan under the Influence of COVID-19 Pandemic: A Wavelet Transformation Approach," JRFM, MDPI, vol. 14(6), pages 1-22, June.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    tourism; optimal; taxation;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • H - Public Economics
    • J - Labor and Demographic Economics

    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:bic:journl:v:4:y:2004:i:2:p:25-38. 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: Anna Zasova (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/biceplv.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.