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Commodity Taxes under Partial Separability Cannot Be Undistorted

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  • Yukihiro Nishimura

    (Osaka University and CESifo)

Abstract

The nature of optimal commodity taxes and tax reform are not well understood in the literature under the separability of subset of consumption goods. We show in this paper that, contrary to the claims of previous researches, under the combination of non-linear income tax and linear commodity taxes, a tax reform towards uniform taxes of the subset of commodities may not be welfare-improving. Furthermore, a distortion of production that alters the relative wages has additional benefit through mimickers’ consumption choices. We also newly characterize the optimal commodity taxes in this setting to show that, to quench possible heterogeneous impacts to the cross-substitution effects on the other commodities, optimally uniform tax towards the separated goods requires uniform income effects across income classes, so that the constraint on the Engel curves in the corresponding optimally linear income and commodity taxes cannot be fully omitted.

Suggested Citation

  • Yukihiro Nishimura, 2025. "Commodity Taxes under Partial Separability Cannot Be Undistorted," Discussion Papers in Economics and Business 25-09, Osaka University, Graduate School of Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:osk:wpaper:2509
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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Kaplow, Louis, 2006. "On the undesirability of commodity taxation even when income taxation is not optimal," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 90(6-7), pages 1235-1250, August.
    2. Paweł Doligalski & Piotr Dworczak & Joanna Krysta & Filip Tokarski, 2025. "Incentive Separability," Journal of Political Economy Microeconomics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 3(3), pages 539-567.
    3. Jesus Seade, 1982. "On the Sign of the Optimum Marginal Income Tax," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 49(4), pages 637-643.
    4. Spencer Bastani & Sören Blomquist & Jukka Pirttilä, 2015. "How should commodities be taxed? A counter-argument to the recommendation in the Mirrlees Review," Oxford Economic Papers, Oxford University Press, vol. 67(2), pages 455-478.
    5. Jacobs, Bas & Boadway, Robin, 2014. "Optimal linear commodity taxation under optimal non-linear income taxation," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 117(C), pages 201-210.
    6. Besley, Timothy & Jewitt, Ian, 1995. "Uniform taxation and consumer preferences," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 58(1), pages 73-84, September.
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    Keywords

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    JEL classification:

    • H21 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Efficiency; Optimal Taxation
    • H24 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Personal Income and Other Nonbusiness Taxes and Subsidies

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