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Indirect Taxation in Vertical Oligopoly

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  • Martin Peitz
  • Markus Reisinger

Abstract

This paper analyzes the effects of specific and ad valorem taxation in an industry with downstream and upstream oligopoly. We find that in the short run, i.e. when the number of firms in both markets is exogenous, the results concerning tax incidence tend to be qualitatively similar to models where the upstream market is perfectly competitive. However, both over- and undershifting are more pronounced, potentially to a very large extent. Instead, in the long run under endogenous entry and exit overshifting of both taxes is more likely to occur and is more pronounced under upstream oligopoly. As a result of this, a tax increase is more likely to be welfare reducing. We also demonstrate that downstream and upstream taxation are equivalent in the short run while this is not true for the ad valorem tax in the long run. We show that it is normally more efficient to tax downstream.

Suggested Citation

  • Martin Peitz & Markus Reisinger, 2009. "Indirect Taxation in Vertical Oligopoly," CESifo Working Paper Series 2583, CESifo.
  • Handle: RePEc:ces:ceswps:_2583
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    Cited by:

    1. 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.
    2. Soldatos, Gerasimos, 2014. "Indirect Tax Incidence under Inelastic Underground Economy Demand," MPRA Paper 64598, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    3. Ghosh, Arghya & Morita, Hodaka & Wang, Chengsi, 2014. "Horizontal mergers in the presence of vertical relationships," Working Papers 14-27, University of Mannheim, Department of Economics.
    4. Amarjyoti Mahanta, 2023. "Ad valorem tax versus tax per unit of output in a Bertrand competition with strictly increasing marginal cost," Indian Economic Review, Springer, vol. 58(1), pages 105-117, June.
    5. Takanori Adachi & Michal Fabinger, 2017. "Multi-Dimensional Pass-Through and Welfare Measures under Imperfect Competition," Papers 1702.04967, arXiv.org, revised Dec 2018.
    6. Anna D'Annunzio & Mohammed Mardan & Antonio Russo, 2020. "Multi‐part tariffs and differentiated commodity taxation," RAND Journal of Economics, RAND Corporation, vol. 51(3), pages 786-804, September.
    7. Christos Kotsogiannis & Konstantinos Serfes, 2014. "The Comparison of ad Valorem and Specific Taxation under Uncertainty," Journal of Public Economic Theory, Association for Public Economic Theory, vol. 16(1), pages 48-68, February.
    8. Kenji Fujiwara, 2020. "Revenue-Neutral Tax Reform in Vertically Related Markets," Discussion Paper Series 207, School of Economics, Kwansei Gakuin University.
    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. Gerasimos T SOLDATOS, 2015. "Indirect Tax Incidence under Inelastic Underground Economy Demand," Journal of Economics and Behavioral Studies, AMH International, vol. 7(3), pages 56-62.
    11. Anna Laura Baraldi & Christian Rojas, 2011. "Cost Pass-Through with Network Externalities," International Journal of Business and Economics, School of Management Development, Feng Chia University, Taichung, Taiwan, vol. 10(3), pages 177-199, December.
    12. Arghya Ghosh & Hodaka Morita & Chengsi Wang, 2022. "Welfare Improving Horizontal Mergers in Successive Oligopoly," Journal of Industrial Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 70(1), pages 89-118, March.
    13. Giuranno, Michele G. & Scrimitore, Marcella & Stamatopoulos, Giorgos, 2020. "Subsidy policies and vertical integration in times of crisis: Can two virtues produce an evil?," MPRA Paper 104413, University Library of Munich, Germany.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    specific tax; ad valorem tax; value-added tax; tax incidence; tax efficiency; indirect taxation; imperfect competition; vertical oligopoly;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D43 - Microeconomics - - Market Structure, Pricing, and Design - - - Oligopoly and Other Forms of Market Imperfection
    • H21 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Efficiency; Optimal Taxation
    • H22 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Incidence
    • L13 - Industrial Organization - - Market Structure, Firm Strategy, and Market Performance - - - Oligopoly and Other Imperfect Markets

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