IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/nbr/nberwo/16932.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Fiscal Zoning and Sales Taxes: Do Higher Sales Taxes Lead to More Retailing and Less Manufacturing?

Author

Listed:
  • Daria Burnes
  • David Neumark
  • Michelle J. White

Abstract

We test the hypothesis that local government officials in jurisdictions that have higher local sales taxes are more likely to use fiscal zoning to attract retailing. We find that total retail employment is not significantly affected by local sales tax rates, but employment in big box and anchor stores is significantly increased in jurisdictions where sales tax rates increase. We also find that manufacturing employment is significantly lowered in these jurisdictions. These results suggest that local officials in jurisdictions with higher sales tax rates concentrate on attracting large stores and shopping centers and that their efforts crowd out manufacturing. A rise of one percentage point in a county-level local sales tax rate is predicted to result in 258 additional retail jobs and the loss of 838 manufacturing jobs.

Suggested Citation

  • Daria Burnes & David Neumark & Michelle J. White, 2011. "Fiscal Zoning and Sales Taxes: Do Higher Sales Taxes Lead to More Retailing and Less Manufacturing?," NBER Working Papers 16932, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    • Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:16932
    Note: LS PE
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.nber.org/papers/w16932.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Richard Hawkins & Matthew N. Murray, 2004. "Explaining Interjurisdictional Variations in Local Sales Tax Yield," Public Finance Review, , vol. 32(1), pages 82-104, January.
    2. Goolsbee, Austan & Zittrain, Jonathan, 1999. "Evaluating the Costs and Benefits of Taxing Internet Commerce," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association;National Tax Journal, vol. 52(3), pages 413-428, September.
    3. Mark, Stephen T. & McGuire, Therese J. & Papke, Leslie E., 2000. "The Influence of Taxes on Employment and Population Growth: Evidence From the Washington, D.C. Metropolitan Area," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association;National Tax Journal, vol. 53(1), pages 105-124, March.
    4. David Neumark & Junfu Zhang & Brandon Wall, 2007. "Employment Dynamics and Business Relocation: New Evidence from the National Establishment Time Series," Research in Labor Economics, in: Aspects of Worker Well-Being, pages 39-83, Emerald Group Publishing Limited.
    5. Charles M. Tiebout, 1956. "A Pure Theory of Local Expenditures," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 64(5), pages 416-416.
    6. George R. Zodrow, 2019. "The Property Tax as a Capital Tax: A Room with Three Views," World Scientific Book Chapters, in: George R Zodrow (ed.), TAXATION IN THEORY AND PRACTICE Selected Essays of George R. Zodrow, chapter 15, pages 461-487, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd..
    7. Paul G. Lewis, 2001. "Retail Politics: Local Sales Taxes and the Fiscalization of Land Use," Economic Development Quarterly, , vol. 15(1), pages 21-35, February.
    8. Fischel, William A, 1992. "Property Taxation and the Tiebout Model: Evidence for the Benefit View from Zoning and Voting," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 30(1), pages 171-177, March.
    9. Bruce W. Hamilton, 1975. "Zoning and Property Taxation in a System of Local Governments," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 12(2), pages 205-211, June.
    10. Mark, Stephen T. & McGuire, Therese J. & Papke, Leslie E., 2000. "The Influence of Taxes on Employment and Population Growth: Evidence from the Washington, D.C. Metropolitan Area," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association, vol. 53(n. 1), pages 105-24, March.
    11. Mieszkowski, Peter & Zodrow, George R, 1989. "Taxation and the Tiebout Model: The Differential Effects of Head Taxes, Taxes on Land Rents, and Property Taxes," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 27(3), pages 1098-1146, September.
    12. Thompson, Jeffrey P. & Rohlin, Shawn M., 2012. "The Effect of Sales Taxes on Employment: New Evidence From Cross-Border Panel Data Analysis," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association;National Tax Journal, vol. 65(4), pages 1023-1041, December.
    13. Francesca Mazzolari & David Neumark, 2012. "Immigration and product diversity," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 25(3), pages 1107-1137, July.
    14. Goolsbee, Austan & Zittrain, Jonathan, 1999. "Evaluating the Costs and Benefits of Taxing Internet Commerce," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association, vol. 52(n. 3), pages 413-28, September.
    15. Zodrow, George R., 2001. "The Property Tax as a Capital Tax: A Room with Three Views," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association, vol. 54(n. 1), pages 139-56, March.
    16. Michael Wasylenko, 1997. "Taxation and economic development: the state of the economic literature," New England Economic Review, Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, issue Mar, pages 37-52.
    17. Robert W. Wassmer, 2002. "Fiscalisation of Land Use, Urban Growth Boundaries and Non-central Retail Sprawl in the Western United States," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 39(8), pages 1307-1327, July.
    18. Sonstelie, Jon C. & Portney, Paul R., 1978. "Profit maximizing communities and the theory of local public expenditure," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 5(2), pages 263-277, April.
    19. Ohls, James C. & Weisberg, Richard Chadbourn & White, Michelle J., 1974. "The effect of zoning on land value," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 1(4), pages 428-444, October.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Blog mentions

    As found by EconAcademics.org, the blog aggregator for Economics research:
    1. Higher local sale tax leads to more local retail activity
      by Economic Logician in Economic Logic on 2011-05-26 21:38:00

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Han, Li & Kung, James Kai-Sing, 2015. "Fiscal incentives and policy choices of local governments: Evidence from China," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 116(C), pages 89-104.
    2. Givord, Pauline & Quantin, Simon & Trevien, Corentin, 2018. "A long-term evaluation of the first generation of French urban enterprise zones," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 105(C), pages 149-161.
    3. Gian-Claudia Sciara & Kristin Lovejoy & Susan Handy, 2018. "The Impacts of Big Box Retail on Downtown: A Case Study of Target in Davis (CA)," Journal of the American Planning Association, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 84(1), pages 45-60, January.
    4. Yugang Tang & Zhihao Su & Yilin Hou & Zhendong Yin, 2023. "Tax Streams, Land Rents and Urban Land Allocation," CESifo Working Paper Series 10812, CESifo.
    5. Fugang Gao & Huub Ploegmakers & Erwin van der Krabben & Xiaoping Shi, 2022. "Impacts of the political incentive for environmental protection on industrial land supply: Evidence from the cadre evaluation system reform in China," Papers in Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 101(4), pages 1001-1025, August.
    6. Dan S. Rickman, 2013. "Should Oklahoma Be More Like Texas? A Taxing Decision," The Review of Regional Studies, Southern Regional Science Association, vol. 43(1), pages 1-22, Summer.
    7. Sciara, Gian-Claudia, 2015. "Measuring Land Use Performance: Policy, Plan, and Outcome," Institute of Transportation Studies, Working Paper Series qt9w64r1qz, Institute of Transportation Studies, UC Davis.
    8. Agrawal, David R., 2016. "Local fiscal competition: An application to sales taxation with multiple federations," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 91(C), pages 122-138.
    9. Rohlin, Shawn & Rosenthal, Stuart S. & Ross, Amanda, 2014. "Tax avoidance and business location in a state border model," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 83(C), pages 34-49.

    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. Burnes, Daria & Neumark, David & White, Michelle J., 2012. "Fiscal Zoning, Sales Taxes, and Employment: Do Higher Sales Taxes Lead to More Jobs in Retailing and Fewer Jobs in Manufacturing?," IZA Discussion Papers 6383, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    2. George R. Zodrow, 2019. "Intrajurisdictional Capitalization and the Incidence of the Property Tax," World Scientific Book Chapters, in: George R Zodrow (ed.), TAXATION IN THEORY AND PRACTICE Selected Essays of George R. Zodrow, chapter 16, pages 489-522, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd..
    3. Teresa Garcia-Milà & Therese J. McGuire, 2001. "Tax incentives and the city," Economics Working Papers 631, Department of Economics and Business, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, revised Dec 2001.
    4. Sung Hoon Kang & Mark Skidmore & Laura Reese, 2015. "The Effects of Changes in Property Tax Rates and School Spending on Residential and Business Property Value Growth," Real Estate Economics, American Real Estate and Urban Economics Association, vol. 43(2), pages 300-333, June.
    5. Pengju Zhang, 2023. "The fiscal and economic impacts of municipal dissolution: evidence from New York," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 30(4), pages 948-1001, August.
    6. George R. Zodrow, 2007. "The Property Tax Incidence Debate and the Mix of State and Local Finance of Local Public Expenditures," CESifo Economic Studies, CESifo Group, vol. 53(4), pages 495-521, December.
    7. Burge, Gregory S. & Piper, Brian, 2012. "Strategic Fiscal Interdependence: County and Municipal Adoptions of Local Option Sales Taxes," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association;National Tax Journal, vol. 65(2), pages 387-415, June.
    8. Gilbert E. Metcalf & Don Fullerton, 2002. "The Distribution of Tax Burdens: An Introduction," NBER Working Papers 8978, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    9. H. Spencer Banzhaf & Kyle Mangum, 2019. "Capitalization as a Two-Part Tariff: The Role of Zoning," NBER Working Papers 25699, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    10. Andrew Hanson, 2021. "Taxes and Economic Development: An Update on the State of the Economics Literature," Economic Development Quarterly, , vol. 35(3), pages 232-253, August.
    11. IREGUI, Ana María & Ligia Melo & Jorge Ramos, 2005. "El impuesto predial en Colombia: factores explicativos del recaudo," Revista de Economía del Rosario, Universidad del Rosario, June.
    12. Elizabeth C. Ekmekjian & Martin Gritsch & Tricia Coxwell Snyder, 2022. "How Does the $10,000 Cap on State and Local Taxes Impact the Housing Market in New Jersey?," International Journal of Finance, Insurance and Risk Management, International Journal of Finance, Insurance and Risk Management, vol. 12(1), pages 12-21.
    13. Gallagher, Ryan M., 2016. "The fiscal externality of multifamily housing and its impact on the property tax: Evidence from cities and schools, 1980–2010," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 60(C), pages 249-259.
    14. Federico Belotti & Edoardo Di Porto & Gianluca Santoni, 2021. "The effect of local taxes on firm performance: Evidence from geo‐referenced data," Journal of Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 61(2), pages 492-510, March.
    15. Baicker, Katherine & Clemens, Jeffrey & Singhal, Monica, 2012. "The rise of the states: U.S. fiscal decentralization in the postwar period," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 96(11), pages 1079-1091.
    16. 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.
    17. Edoardo Di Porto & Tommaso Oliviero & Annalisa Tirozzi, 2021. "The economic effects of immovable property taxation: A review of the Italian experience," ECONOMIA PUBBLICA, FrancoAngeli Editore, vol. 2021(1), pages 25-43.
    18. Richard Funderburg & Timothy J. Bartik & Alan H. Peters & Peter S. Fisher, 2013. "The Impact Of Marginal Business Taxes On State Manufacturing," Journal of Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 53(4), pages 557-582, October.
    19. David E. Wildasin, 2006. "Global Competition for Mobile Resources: Implications for Equity, Efficiency and Political Economy," CESifo Economic Studies, CESifo Group, vol. 52(1), pages 61-110, March.
    20. Yonghong Wu, 2012. "How Major Local Taxes Affect Private Employment," Economic Development Quarterly, , vol. 26(4), pages 351-360, November.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • H71 - Public Economics - - State and Local Government; Intergovernmental Relations - - - State and Local Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue
    • J2 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor
    • R52 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - Regional Government Analysis - - - Land Use and Other Regulations

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Lists

    This item is featured on the following reading lists, Wikipedia, or ReplicationWiki pages:
    1. 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:nbr:nberwo:16932. 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: the person in charge (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/nberrus.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.