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Income effects and the welfare consequences of tax in differentiated product oligopoly

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  • Rachel Griffith
  • Lars Nesheim
  • Martin O'Connell

Abstract

Random utility models are widely used to study consumer choice. The vast majority of applications make strong assumptions about the marginal utility of income, which restricts income effects, demand curvature and pass-through. We show that flexibly modeling income effects can be important, particularly if one is interested in the distributional effects of a policy change, even in a market in which, a priori, the expectation is that income effects will play a limited role. We allow for much more flexible forms of income effects than is common and we illustrate the implications by simulating the introduction of an excise tax.Supplementary material for this paper is available here.

Suggested Citation

  • Rachel Griffith & Lars Nesheim & Martin O'Connell, 2015. "Income effects and the welfare consequences of tax in differentiated product oligopoly," CeMMAP working papers 23/15, Institute for Fiscal Studies.
    • Handle: RePEc:azt:cemmap:23/15
    DOI: 10.1920/wp.cem.2015.2315
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    Cited by:

    1. Joel L. Horowitz & Lars Nesheim, 2018. "Using penalized likelihood to select parameters in a random coefficients multinomial logit model," CeMMAP working papers CWP29/18, Centre for Microdata Methods and Practice, Institute for Fiscal Studies.
    2. Martin O'Connell & Kate Smith, 2024. "Optimal Sin Taxation and Market Power," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 16(4), pages 34-70, October.
    3. Takanori Adachi & Muhammad Michal Fabinger, 2017. "Multi-Dimensional Pass-Through, Incidence, and the Welfare Burden of Taxation in Oligopoly," CIRJE F-Series CIRJE-F-1040, CIRJE, Faculty of Economics, University of Tokyo.
    4. Miravete, Eugenio J. & Seim, Katja & Thurk, Jeff, 2023. "Pass-through and tax incidence in differentiated product markets," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 90(C).
    5. Ellalee, Haider & Alali, Walid Y., 2022. "A Welfare and Pass-Through Effects of Regulations within Imperfect Competition," MPRA Paper 116512, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    6. Abi-Rafeh, Rossi & Dubois, Pierre & Griffith, Rachel & O'Connell, Martin, 2023. "The Effects of Sin Taxes and Advertising Restrictions in a Dynamic Equilibrium," CEPR Discussion Papers 18527, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    7. Abi-Rafeh, Rossi & Dubois, Pierre & Griffith, Rachel & O'Connell, Martin, 2023. "The Effects of Sin Taxes and Advertising Restrictions in a Dynamic Equilibrium," CEPR Discussion Papers 18527, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    8. Victor Aguirregabiria, 2023. "Dynamic demand for differentiated products with fixed-effects unobserved heterogeneity," The Econometrics Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 26(1), pages 1-25.
    9. Takanori Adachi & Michal Fabinger, 2017. "Multi-Dimensional Pass-Through, Incidence, and the Welfare Burden of Taxation in Oligopoly," CIRJE F-Series CIRJE-F-1040, CIRJE, Faculty of Economics, University of Tokyo.
    10. Naoshi Doi, 2022. "Choice of Policy Instruments with Endogenous Quality: Per‐Passenger and Per‐Flight Airport Charges in Japan," Journal of Industrial Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 70(1), pages 44-88, March.
    11. Firat Cengiz, 2016. "Legitimacy and Multi‐Level Governance in European Union Competition Law: A Deliberative Discursive Approach," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 54(4), pages 826-845, July.
    12. Wang, Ao, 2021. "A BLP Demand Model of Product-Level Market Shares with Complementarity," The Warwick Economics Research Paper Series (TWERPS) 1351, University of Warwick, Department of Economics.
    13. Takanori Adachi & Michal Fabinger, 2017. "Multi-Dimensional Pass-Through and Welfare Measures under Imperfect Competition," Papers 1702.04967, arXiv.org, revised Dec 2018.
    14. Adachi, Takanori & Fabinger, Michal, 2022. "Pass-through, welfare, and incidence under imperfect competition," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 211(C).
    15. Huse, Cristian & Lucinda, Claudio & Ribeiro, Andre, 2021. "Assessing the effects of a large temporary energy savings program: Evidence from a developing country," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 110(C).
    16. Kim, Chul & Smith, Adam N. & Kim, Jaehwan & Allenby, Greg M., 2023. "Outside good utility and substitution patterns in direct utility models," Journal of choice modelling, Elsevier, vol. 49(C).
    17. O'Connell, Martin & Smith, Kate, 2020. "Corrective Tax Design and Market Power," CEPR Discussion Papers 14582, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    18. Horowitz, Joel L. & Nesheim, Lars, 2021. "Using penalized likelihood to select parameters in a random coefficients multinomial logit model," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 222(1), pages 44-55.
    19. Allais, Oliver & Bonnet, Céline & Réquillart, Vincent & Spiteri, Marine, 2020. "Reformulation and taxes for healthier consumption: Empirical evidence in the French Dessert market," TSE Working Papers 20-1082, Toulouse School of Economics (TSE).
    20. Nail Kashaev, 2018. "Identification and estimation of multinomial choice models with latent special covariates," Papers 1811.05555, arXiv.org, revised Mar 2022.
    21. Biondi, Beatrice & Cornelsen, Laura & Mazzocchi, Mario & Smith, Richard, 2020. "Between preferences and references: Asymmetric price elasticities and the simulation of fiscal policies," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 180(C), pages 108-128.
    22. Isis Durrmeyer, 2021. "Winners and Losers: The Distributional Effects of the French Feebate on the Automobile Market," Post-Print hal-03514846, HAL.
    23. Doi, Naoshi & Kono, Tatsuhito & Suzaki, Izumo, 2023. "Optimizing Multiple Airport Charges with Endogenous Airline Quality Considering the Marginal Cost of Public Funds," MPRA Paper 116176, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    24. Huse, Cristian & Lucinda, Claudio & Cardoso, Andre Ribeiro, 2020. "Consumer response to energy label policies: Evidence from the Brazilian energy label program," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 138(C).

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    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • H20 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - General
    • L13 - Industrial Organization - - Market Structure, Firm Strategy, and Market Performance - - - Oligopoly and Other Imperfect Markets

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