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Restaurant VAT cut: Cheaper meal and more service?

Author

Listed:
  • Kosonen, Tuomas
  • Harju, Jarkko

Abstract

This paper provides causally plausible estimates of the effects of consumption taxes in a service sector on prices and demand for restaurant services. We utilize a large VAT reform affecting restaurant meals, where the VAT rate was cut from 22% to 13% in 2010 in Finland. By comparing with restaurants in neighboring countries and other related sectors in Finland, the reform offers a natural experimental approach. The results indicate that restaurants reduced their prices on average by only 2%, which equals roughly a quarter of the full pass-through. Remarkably, at the same time a majority of restaurants did not reduce their prices at all and a non-trivial fraction of restaurants reduced their prices by exactly the full pass-through. Larger restaurants reduced their prices more often than smaller restaurants. We do not observe any increases in the quantity of services sold or in wage sums paid to employees. Furthermore, there are no changes in mediumterm entry and exit due to the reform.

Suggested Citation

  • Kosonen, Tuomas & Harju, Jarkko, 2013. "Restaurant VAT cut: Cheaper meal and more service?," Working Papers 52, VATT Institute for Economic Research.
    • Handle: RePEc:fer:wpaper:52
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    File URL: https://www.doria.fi/handle/10024/148791
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    Cited by:

    1. Vesal, Mohammad, 2017. "Stimulus Effect of a Value-added Tax Cut: Evidence from the UK Tax Returns Data," MPRA Paper 101016, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    2. Christophe André & Hyunjeong Hwang, 2018. "Tax reform to support growth and employment in Finland," OECD Economics Department Working Papers 1468, OECD Publishing.
    3. Li Liu & Benjamin Lockwood, 2015. "VAT Notches," CESifo Working Paper Series 5371, CESifo.

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