IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/qed/wpaper/1059.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Is The Value Added Tax Naturally Progressive?

Author

Listed:
  • Chun-Yan Kuo

    (Queen's University, Canada)

  • Hatice Jenkins

    (Department of Banking and Finance, Eastern Mediterranean University)

  • Glenn Jenkins

Abstract

A broad based consumption tax, such as a value added tax, is generally considered to be a regressive tax. This conclusion, however, has not taken into account the fact that in developing countries the commodities on which poor households spend most of their income, even if they are included in the legal tax base, are administratively impractical to tax. This paper employs a rich data set on household incomes and expenditures for the Dominican Republic. The data set covers 2042 goods and services purchased by households of different income and consumption levels. It also contains information on the type of establishment from which the items were purchased. With this information we estimate the effective rate of tax that has been paid on each item purchased by households. These estimations include the effect of the different rates of the tax compliance across households with different expenditure levels. The results of the study show that the burden of the current VAT in the Dominican Republic is progressive over all the quintiles of household expenditure. Furthermore, if the base of the VAT is made comprehensive, the estimated incidence of the burden of the VAT is still progressive over all the quintiles household expenditure.

Suggested Citation

  • Chun-Yan Kuo & Hatice Jenkins & Glenn Jenkins, 2006. "Is The Value Added Tax Naturally Progressive?," Working Paper 1059, Economics Department, Queen's University.
    • Handle: RePEc:qed:wpaper:1059
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.econ.queensu.ca/sites/econ.queensu.ca/files/qed_wp_1059.pdf
    File Function: First version 2006
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Gilbert E. Metcalf, 1995. "Value-Added Taxation: A Tax Whose Time Has Come?," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 9(1), pages 121-140, Winter.
    2. Gilbert E. Metcalf, 1994. "Lifecycle vs. Annual Perspectives on the Incidence of A Value Added Tax," NBER Working Papers 4619, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    3. Richard A. Musgrave & Karl E. Case & Herman Leonard, 1974. "The Distribution of Fiscal Burdens and Benefits," Public Finance Review, , vol. 2(3), pages 259-311, July.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

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


    Cited by:

    1. Bachas, Pierre & Gadenne, Lucie & Jensen, Anders, 2020. "Informality, Consumption Taxes and Redistribution," The Warwick Economics Research Paper Series (TWERPS) 1277, University of Warwick, Department of Economics.
    2. Artem Krasnov & Aizada Okanova & Yana Yeraliyeva & Maral Kozhakhmetova & Alma Karshalova & Madina Aitkazina, 2020. "Development of the financial policy of the Eurasian economic union countries: tax harmonization," Entrepreneurship and Sustainability Issues, VsI Entrepreneurship and Sustainability Center, vol. 8(1), pages 138-149, September.
    3. Asatryan, Zareh & Gomtsyan, David, 2020. "The incidence of VAT evasion," ZEW Discussion Papers 20-027, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research.
    4. Richard M. Bird, 2014. "Foreign advice and tax policy in developing countries," Chapters, in: Richard M. Bird & Jorge Martinez-Vazquez (ed.), Taxation and Development: The Weakest Link?, chapter 4, pages 103-144, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    5. Keen, Michael & Lockwood, Ben, 2010. "The value added tax: Its causes and consequences," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 92(2), pages 138-151, July.
    6. Zhila Abshari & Glenn P. Jenkins & Chun-Yan Kuo & Mostafa Shahee, 2021. "Progressive Taxation versus Progressive Targeted Transfers in the Design of a Sustainable Value Added Tax System," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(20), pages 1-17, October.
    7. de Quatrebarbes, Céline & Boccanfuso, Dorothée & Savard, Luc, 2016. "Beyond representative households: The macro–micro impact analysis of VAT designs applied to Niger," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 57(C), pages 76-92.
    8. Christian E. Weller & Manita Rao, 2008. "Can Progressive Taxation Contribute to Economic Development?," Working Papers wp176, Political Economy Research Institute, University of Massachusetts at Amherst.
    9. Michael Keen, 2009. "What Do (and Don't) We Know about the Value Added Tax? A Review of Richard M. Bird and Pierre-Pascal Gendron's The VAT in Developing and Transitional Countries," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 47(1), pages 159-170, March.
    10. Dorothée Boccanfuso & Celine de Quatrebarbes & Luc Savard, 2011. "Can the removal of VAT Exemptions support the Poor? The Case of Niger," CERDI Working papers halshs-00577148, HAL.
    11. Céline de Quatrebarbes & Savard Luc & Boccanfuso Dorothée, 2011. "Can the suppression of VAT exemption support the poor? The case of Niger," EcoMod2011 3227, EcoMod.
    12. Mr. Michael Keen, 2012. "Taxation and Development: Again," IMF Working Papers 2012/220, International Monetary Fund.
    13. Arsić, Milojko & Altiparmakov, Nikola, 2013. "Equity aspects of VAT in emerging European countries: A case study of Serbia," Economic Systems, Elsevier, vol. 37(2), pages 171-186.
    14. Alastair Thomas, 2022. "Reassessing the regressivity of the VAT," Fiscal Studies, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 43(1), pages 23-38, March.
    15. Joel Slemrod & Tejaswi Velayudhan, 2022. "The VAT at 100: A Retrospective Survey and Agenda for Future Research," Public Finance Review, , vol. 50(1), pages 4-32, January.
    16. Rodrigo Cubero & Ivanna Vladkova Hollar, 2010. "Equity and Fiscal Policy: The Income Distribution Effects of Taxation and Social Spending in Central America," IMF Working Papers 2010/112, International Monetary Fund.
    17. Suresh Narayanan, 2014. "The Impact Of The Goods And Services Tax (Gst) In Malaysia: Lessons From Experiences Elsewhere (A Note)," The Singapore Economic Review (SER), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 59(02), pages 1-15.
    18. Mattéo Godin & Romain Houssa & Kelbesa Megersa, 2017. "The Performance of VAT in DGD-partner countries," BeFinD Working Papers 0116, University of Namur, Department of Economics.
    19. Fikri R. Arrachman & Riatu M. Qibthiyyah, 2018. "The Relationship of VAT Rate and Revenues in the Case of Informality," Economics and Finance in Indonesia, Faculty of Economics and Business, University of Indonesia, vol. 64, pages 73-96, Juni.
    20. Janina Kotlinska & Marian Zukowski & Pawel Marzec & Jaroslaw Kuspit & Zdzislaw A. Blasiak, 2020. "Household Consumption and VAT Revenue in Poland," European Research Studies Journal, European Research Studies Journal, vol. 0(Special 2), pages 580-605.

    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. Koen Caminada & Kees Goudswaard & Chen Wang & Jinxian Wang, 2019. "Income Inequality and Fiscal Redistribution in 31 Countries After the Crisis," Comparative Economic Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Association for Comparative Economic Studies, vol. 61(1), pages 119-148, March.
    2. Ruud de Mooij & Michael Keen, 2012. ""Fiscal Devaluation" and Fiscal Consolidation: The VAT in Troubled Times," NBER Chapters, in: Fiscal Policy after the Financial Crisis, pages 443-485, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    3. Lawrence B. Lindsey, 1985. "Taxpayer Behavior and the Distribution of the 1982 Tax Cut," NBER Working Papers 1760, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    4. Ron Crawford & Grant Johnston, 2004. "Household incomes in New Zealand: The impact of the market, taxes and government spending, 1987/88–1997/98," Treasury Working Paper Series 04/20, New Zealand Treasury.
    5. Christian R. Jaramillo H. & Jorge Tovar, 2007. "Incidencia Del Impuesto Al Valor Agregado Sobre Los Precios En Colombia," Documentos CEDE 2830, Universidad de los Andes, Facultad de Economía, CEDE.
    6. Saadia Refaqat, 2005. "Redistributive Impact of GST Tax Reform: Pakistan, 1990-2001," The Pakistan Development Review, Pakistan Institute of Development Economics, vol. 44(4), pages 841-862.
    7. James R. Hines Jr., 2007. "Taxing Consumption and Other Sins," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 21(1), pages 49-68, Winter.
    8. Sanghamitra Bandyopadhyay & Joan Esteban, 2009. "Redistributive Taxation, PublicExpenditure and the Size of Government," STICERD - Distributional Analysis Research Programme Papers 095, Suntory and Toyota International Centres for Economics and Related Disciplines, LSE.
    9. Cossio Muñoz, Fernando, 2006. "Informe de Equidad Fiscal de Bolivia: Incidencia Distributiva de la Política Fiscal [Social Incidence of the Fiscal Policy in Bolivia]," MPRA Paper 91343, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    10. Mare, Mauro, 2015. "Why and How should the EU budget be reformed?," MPRA Paper 76112, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    11. Bibek Adhikari, 2015. "When Does Introducing a Value-Added Tax Increase Economic Efficiency? Evidence from the Synthetic Control Method," Working Papers 1524, Tulane University, Department of Economics, revised Nov 2015.
    12. Jorge Martinez-Vazquez, 2001. "The Impact of Budgets on the Poor: Tax and Benefit," International Center for Public Policy Working Paper Series, at AYSPS, GSU paper0110, International Center for Public Policy, Andrew Young School of Policy Studies, Georgia State University.
    13. Liu, Qing & Lu, Yi, 2015. "Firm investment and exporting: Evidence from China's value-added tax reform," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 97(2), pages 392-403.
    14. Willem H. Buiter, 1997. "Generational Accounts, Aggregate Saving and Intergenerational Distribution," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 64(256), pages 605-626, November.
    15. Gilbert E. Metcalf, 2014. "Using the Tax System to Address Competition Issues With a Carbon Tax," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association;National Tax Journal, vol. 67(4), pages 779-806, December.
    16. Peter, Klara Sabirianova, 2009. "Income Tax Flattening: Does It Help to Reduce the Shadow Economy?," IZA Discussion Papers 4223, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    17. Antonio Gómez Gómez-Plana & Pedro Pascual Arzoz, 2011. "Fraude fiscal e IVA en España: incidencia en un modelo de equilibrio general," Hacienda Pública Española / Review of Public Economics, IEF, vol. 199(4), pages 9-52, December.
    18. William G. Gale & Samuel Brown, 2013. "Tax Reform for Growth, Equity, and Revenue," Public Finance Review, , vol. 41(6), pages 721-754, November.
    19. Selden, Thomas M. & Wasylenko, Michael J., 1992. "Benefit incidence analysis in developing countries," Policy Research Working Paper Series 1015, The World Bank.
    20. James R. Hines Jr. & Lawrence H. Summers, 2009. "How Globalization Affects Tax Design," NBER Chapters, in: Tax Policy and the Economy, Volume 23, pages 123-157, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Value Added Tax; incidence; compliance;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • H22 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Incidence
    • H26 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Tax Evasion and Avoidance

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:qed:wpaper:1059. 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: Mark Babcock (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/qedquca.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.