IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ssb/dispap/809.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Optimal indirect taxation and the uniformity debate: A review of theoretical results and empirical contributions

Author

Listed:

Abstract

A review of the theoretical literature on optimal indirect taxation reveals that analytical arguments in favor of uniform indirect taxation seem weak and rather unrealistic; hence determining the optimal tax structure remains an empirical issue. However, reviewing the empirical contributions shows that most of them operate under rather restrictive and simplistic frameworks. The empirical support for uniformity seems weak, particularly when the models approach real world complexity. It appears that within a many-consumer economy, differentiated and progressive indirect taxation is likely to be the optimal solution.

Suggested Citation

  • Odd E. Nygård & John T. Revesz, 2015. "Optimal indirect taxation and the uniformity debate: A review of theoretical results and empirical contributions," Discussion Papers 809, Statistics Norway, Research Department.
    • Handle: RePEc:ssb:dispap:809
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.ssb.no/en/forskning/discussion-papers/_attachment/228490
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. W. J. Corlett & D. C. Hague, 1953. "Complementarity and the Excess Burden of Taxation," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 21(1), pages 21-30.
    2. Madden, David, 1995. "Labour Supply, Commodity Demand and Marginal Tax Reform," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 105(429), pages 485-497, March.
    3. 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.
    4. Ray, Ranjan, 1997. "Issues in the Design and Reform of Commodity Taxes: Analytical Results and Empirical Evidence," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 11(4), pages 353-388, December.
    5. Deaton, Angus, 1983. "An explicit solution to an optimal tax problem," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 20(3), pages 333-346, April.
    6. Dixit, Avinash, 1975. "Welfare effects of tax and price changes," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 4(2), pages 103-123, February.
    7. John T. Revesz, 2014. "A computational model of optimal commodity taxation," Public Finance Research Papers 4, Istituto di Economia e Finanza, DSGE, Sapienza University of Rome.
    8. Alessandro Santoro, 2007. "Marginal Commodity Tax Reforms: A Survey," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 21(4), pages 827-848, September.
    9. Revesz, John T, 1997. "Uniform versus Non-uniform Indirect Taxation: Some Numerical Results," Public Finance = Finances publiques, , vol. 52(2), pages 210-234.
    10. (IFS), Institute for Fiscal Studies & Mirrlees, James (ed.), 2011. "Tax By Design: The Mirrlees Review," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780199553747.
    11. Deaton, Angus, 1981. "Optimal Taxes and the Structure of Preferences," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 49(5), pages 1245-1260, September.
    12. Mirrlees, J. A., 1976. "Optimal tax theory : A synthesis," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 6(4), pages 327-358, November.
    13. Laroque, Guy R., 2005. "Indirect taxation is superfluous under separability and taste homogeneity: a simple proof," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 87(1), pages 141-144, April.
    14. Saez, Emmanuel, 2002. "The desirability of commodity taxation under non-linear income taxation and heterogeneous tastes," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 83(2), pages 217-230, February.
    15. J. A. Mirrlees, 1971. "An Exploration in the Theory of Optimum Income Taxation," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 38(2), pages 175-208.
    16. Cremer, Helmuth & Gahvari, Firouz, 1993. "Tax evasion and optimal commodity taxation," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 50(2), pages 261-275, February.
    17. Decoster, Andre & Schokkaert, Erik, 1990. "Tax reform results with different demand systems," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 41(3), pages 277-296, April.
    18. Paul Johnson & Gareth Myles, 2011. "The Mirrlees Review," Fiscal Studies, Institute for Fiscal Studies, vol. 32(3), pages 319-329, September.
    19. Christiansen, Vidar, 1984. "Which commodity taxes should supplement the income tax?," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 24(2), pages 195-220, July.
    20. 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.
    21. Naito, Hisahiro, 1999. "Re-examination of uniform commodity taxes under a non-linear income tax system and its implication for production efficiency," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 71(2), pages 165-188, February.
    22. Robin Boadway, 2010. "Efficiency and Redistribution: An Evaluative Review of Louis Kaplow's The Theory of Taxation and Public Economics," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 48(4), pages 964-979, December.
    23. Caves, Douglas W & Christensen, Laurits R, 1980. "Global Properties of Flexible Functional Forms," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 70(3), pages 422-432, June.
    24. Christopher J. Heady & Pradeep K. Mitra, 1980. "The Computation of Optimum Linear Taxation," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 47(3), pages 567-585.
    25. European Commission, 2014. "Tax reforms in EU Member States - 2014 Report," Taxation Papers 48, Directorate General Taxation and Customs Union, European Commission.
    26. Sadka, Efraim, 1977. "A theorem on uniform taxation," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 7(3), pages 387-391, June.
    27. Harris, Richard G. & Mackinnon, James G., 1979. "Computing optimal tax equilibria," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 11(2), pages 197-212, March.
    28. Angus Deaton, 1979. "The Distance Function in Consumer Behaviour with Applications to Index Numbers and Optimal Taxation," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 46(3), pages 391-405.
    29. Avinash Dixit, 1979. "Price changes and optimum taxation in a many-consumer economy," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 11(2), pages 143-157, March.
    30. Besley, Timothy, 1988. "A simple model for merit good arguments," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 35(3), pages 371-383, April.
    31. Browning, Martin & Meghir, Costas, 1991. "The Effects of Male and Female Labor Supply on Commodity Demands," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 59(4), pages 925-951, July.
    32. Majumder, Amita, 1988. "A note on optimal commodity taxation in India," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 27(2), pages 167-171.
    33. Blundell, Richard W & Walker, Ian, 1982. "Modelling the Joint Determination of Household Labour Supplies and Commodity Demands," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 92(366), pages 351-364, June.
    34. Christiansen, Vidar, 1994. " Cross-Border Shopping and the Optimum Commodity Tax in a Competitive and a Monopoly Market," Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 96(3), pages 329-341.
    35. Murty, M. N. & Ray, Ranjan, 1987. "Sensitivity of optimal commodity taxes to relaxing leisure/goods separability and to the wage rate," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 24(3), pages 273-277.
    36. Besley, Timothy & Jewitt, Ian, 1995. "Uniform taxation and consumer preferences," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 58(1), pages 73-84, September.
    37. Jens Matthias Arnold & Bert Brys & Christopher Heady & Åsa Johansson & Cyrille Schwellnus & Laura Vartia, 2011. "Tax Policy for Economic Recovery and Growth," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 121(550), pages 59-80, February.
    38. Atkinson, A. B. & Stiglitz, J. E., 1976. "The design of tax structure: Direct versus indirect taxation," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 6(1-2), pages 55-75.
    39. John T. Revesz, 2014. "A Numerical Model of Optimal Differentiated Indirect Taxation," Hacienda Pública Española / Review of Public Economics, IEF, vol. 211(4), pages 9-66, December.
    40. 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.
    41. Seki Asano & Takashi Fukushima, 2006. "Some Empirical Evidence On Demand System* And Optimal Commodity Taxation," The Japanese Economic Review, Japanese Economic Association, vol. 57(1), pages 50-68, March.
    42. Diamond, P. A., 1975. "A many-person Ramsey tax rule," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 4(4), pages 335-342, November.
    43. Diamond, Peter A & Mirrlees, James A, 1971. "Optimal Taxation and Public Production II: Tax Rules," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 61(3), pages 261-278, June.
    44. Deaton, Angus, 1979. "Optimally uniform commodity taxes," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 2(4), pages 357-361.
    45. Ranjan Ray, 1997. "Issues in the Design and Reform of Commodity Taxes: Analytical Results and Empirical Evidence," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 11(4), pages 353-388, December.
    46. Knud Jørgen Munk, 1980. "Optimal Taxation with some Non-Taxable Commodities," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 47(4), pages 755-765.
    47. Diamond, Peter A & Mirrlees, James A, 1971. "Optimal Taxation and Public Production: I--Production Efficiency," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 61(1), pages 8-27, March.
    48. Atkinson, Anthony B., 1970. "On the measurement of inequality," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 2(3), pages 244-263, September.
    49. Munk, Knud Jorgen, 1978. " Optimal Taxation and Pure Profit," Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 80(1), pages 1-19.
    50. Murty, M N & Ray, Ranjan, 1989. " A Computational Procedure for Calculating Optimal Commodity Taxes with Illustrative Evidence from Indian Budget Data," Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 91(4), pages 655-670.
    51. Cremer, Helmuth & Gahvari, Firouz, 1995. "Uncertainty, Optimal Taxation and the Direct versus Indirect Tax Controversy," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 105(432), pages 1165-1179, September.
    52. Paul Blacklow & Ranjan Ray, 2002. "Optimal Commodity Taxes in Australia," Australian Economic Review, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, vol. 35(1), pages 45-54, March.
    53. Lerner, Abba P, 1970. "On Optimal Taxes With an Untaxable Sector," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 60(3), pages 284-294, June.
    54. Efraim Sadka, 1976. "On Income Distribution, Incentive Effects and Optimal Income Taxation," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 43(2), pages 261-267.
    55. Atkinson, A. B. & Stiglitz, J. E., 1972. "The structure of indirect taxation and economic efficiency," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 1(1), pages 97-119, April.
    56. Auerbach, Alan J., 1985. "The theory of excess burden and optimal taxation," Handbook of Public Economics, in: A. J. Auerbach & M. Feldstein (ed.), Handbook of Public Economics, edition 1, volume 1, chapter 2, pages 61-127, Elsevier.
    57. Baumol, William J & Bradford, David F, 1970. "Optimal Departures from Marginal Cost Pricing," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 60(3), pages 265-283, June.
    58. European Commission, 2013. "Tax reforms in EU Member States - Tax policy challenges for economic growth and fiscal sustainability – 2013 Report," Taxation Papers 38, Directorate General Taxation and Customs Union, European Commission.
    59. Stiglitz, Joseph E., 1982. "Self-selection and Pareto efficient taxation," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 17(2), pages 213-240, March.
    60. Feldstein, Martin S, 1972. "Distributional Equity and the Optimal Structure of Public Prices," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 62(1), pages 32-36, March.
    61. Unknown, 1986. "Letters," Choices: The Magazine of Food, Farm, and Resource Issues, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 1(4), pages 1-9.
    62. Ray, Ranjan, 1986. "Sensitivity of `optimal' commodity tax rates to alternative demand functional forms : An econometric case study of India," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 31(2), pages 253-268, November.
    63. Deaton,Angus & Muellbauer,John, 1980. "Economics and Consumer Behavior," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521296762.
    64. Asano, Seki & Barbosa, Ana Luiza N. H. & Fiuza, Eduardo P. S., 2004. "Optimal Commodity Taxes for Brazil Based on AIDS Preferences," Revista Brasileira de Economia - RBE, EPGE Brazilian School of Economics and Finance - FGV EPGE (Brazil), vol. 58(1), January.
    65. Blundell, Richard & Ray, Ranjan, 1984. "Testing for Linear Engel Curves and Additively Separable Preferences Using a New Flexible Demand System," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 94(376), pages 800-811, December.
    66. Dixit, Avinash K, 1970. "On the Optimum Structure of Commodity Taxes," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 60(3), pages 295-301, June.
    67. Deaton, Angus & Stern, Nicholas, 1986. "Optimally uniform commodity taxes, taste differences and lump-sum grants," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 20(3), pages 263-266.
    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. Emilian Dobrescu, 2018. "Functional trinity of public finance in an emerging economy," Journal of Economic Structures, Springer;Pan-Pacific Association of Input-Output Studies (PAPAIOS), vol. 7(1), pages 1-27, December.

    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. Odd E. Nygard & John T. Revesz, 2016. "A literature review on optimal indirect taxation and the uniformity debate," Hacienda Pública Española / Review of Public Economics, IEF, vol. 218(3), pages 107-140, September.
    2. John T. Revesz, 2014. "A Numerical Model of Optimal Differentiated Indirect Taxation," Hacienda Pública Española / Review of Public Economics, IEF, vol. 211(4), pages 9-66, December.
    3. John T. Revesz, 2014. "A computational model of optimal commodity taxation," Public Finance Research Papers 4, Istituto di Economia e Finanza, DSGE, Sapienza University of Rome.
    4. Stiglitz, Joseph E., 2018. "Pareto efficient taxation and expenditures: Pre- and re-distribution," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 162(C), pages 101-119.
    5. Xavier Ruiz del Portal, 2020. "Two reasons for not using commodity taxation in the presence of an optimal income tax," Hacienda Pública Española / Review of Public Economics, IEF, vol. 232(1), pages 9-28, March.
    6. Jacobs, Bas & van der Ploeg, Frederick, 2019. "Redistribution and pollution taxes with non-linear Engel curves," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 95(C), pages 198-226.
    7. 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.
    8. Lu, Chun-Hui & Ueng, K.L. Glen & Chang, Juin-Jen, 2022. "Consumption indivisibility and the optimal tax mix," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 112(C).
    9. Jacobs, Bas & de Mooij, Ruud A., 2015. "Pigou meets Mirrlees: On the irrelevance of tax distortions for the second-best Pigouvian tax," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 71(C), pages 90-108.
    10. C. Benassi & E. Randon, 2015. "Optimal Commodity Taxation and Income Distribution," Working Papers wp1001, Dipartimento Scienze Economiche, Universita' di Bologna.
    11. Robin Boadway & Katherine Cuff, 2023. "The Case for Uniform Commodity Taxation: A Tax Reform Approach," Hacienda Pública Española / Review of Public Economics, IEF, vol. 244(1), pages 79-109, March.
    12. Spencer Bastani & Sebastian Koehne, 2022. "How Should Consumption Be Taxed?," CESifo Working Paper Series 10038, CESifo.
    13. Bas (B.) Jacobs & Rick (F.) van der Ploeg, 2017. "Should Pollution Taxes Be Targeted At Income Redistribution?," Tinbergen Institute Discussion Papers 17-070/VI, Tinbergen Institute.
    14. Robin Boadway, 2017. "Second-Best Theory: Ageing well at Sixty," Pacific Economic Review, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 22(2), pages 249-270, May.
    15. Sushama Murty, "undated". "Lessons from optimal taxation theory for the GST and beyond," Centre for International Trade and Development, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi Discussion Papers 17-07, Centre for International Trade and Development, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, India.
    16. Junichi Minagawa & Thorsten Upmann, 2018. "Optimal taxation under a consumption target," Social Choice and Welfare, Springer;The Society for Social Choice and Welfare, vol. 50(4), pages 663-676, April.
    17. Kaplanoglou, Georgia & Newbery, David Michael, 2003. "Indirect Taxation in Greece: Evaluation and Possible Reform," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 10(5), pages 511-533, September.
    18. Boadway, Robin & Song, Zhen, 2016. "Indirect taxes for redistribution: Should necessity goods be favored?," Research in Economics, Elsevier, vol. 70(1), pages 64-88.
    19. Boadway, Robin, 1999. "Le rôle de la théorie de l’optimum du second rang en économie publique," L'Actualité Economique, Société Canadienne de Science Economique, vol. 75(1), pages 29-65, mars-juin.
    20. Etro, Federico, 2016. "Research in economics and public finance," Research in Economics, Elsevier, vol. 70(1), pages 1-6.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    optimal taxation; indirect taxation;

    JEL classification:

    • D3 - Microeconomics - - Distribution
    • D6 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics
    • H2 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue

    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:ssb:dispap:809. 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: L Maasø (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/ssbgvno.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.