IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/wrk/wrkesp/32.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

The inter-cohort distributional effects of Japan's indirect tax reforms

Author

Listed:
  • Kogawa, Takeshi

    (University of Warwick)

Abstract

This study attempts to estimate how Japans consumption tax reforms affected the welfare of different cohorts of households, using long-term household level panel data including age of head, income and expenditure of each household in Japan. In order to evaluate distributional effects of tax reform, this study compares lifetime Equivalent Variations, which are calculated from estimated value of lifetime share of expenditure on food. As a result, it is shown that, the consumption tax reform in 2019, in which tax rates on non-food items was hiked from 8% to 10%, reduced utility by 1.29% to 1.55% in terms of the EVs in the income ratio, with relatively large effects on the younger, higher-income groups. Furthermore, a simulation analysis of the effect of a tax reduction when the consumption tax rate on food products is set at 0% in 2025 was conducted suggests that the reduced tax rate system could have a certain positive economic effect on the lower-income groups but that the older, higher-income groups could be disproportionately affected.

Suggested Citation

  • Kogawa, Takeshi, 2021. "The inter-cohort distributional effects of Japan's indirect tax reforms," Warwick-Monash Economics Student Papers 32, Warwick Monash Economics Student Papers.
    • Handle: RePEc:wrk:wrkesp:32
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/economics/research/wmesp/manage/32_-_takeshi_kogawa.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Anderson, Simon P. & de Palma, Andre & Kreider, Brent, 2001. "The efficiency of indirect taxes under imperfect competition," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 81(2), pages 231-251, August.
    2. Anderson, Simon P. & de Palma, Andre & Kreider, Brent, 2001. "Tax incidence in differentiated product oligopoly," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 81(2), pages 173-192, August.
    3. Banks, James & Blundell, Richard & Lewbel, Arthur, 1996. "Tax Reform and Welfare Measurement: Do We Need Demand System Estimation?," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 106(438), pages 1227-1241, September.
    4. Carbonnier, Clement, 2007. "Who pays sales taxes? Evidence from French VAT reforms, 1987-1999," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 91(5-6), pages 1219-1229, June.
    5. Kartik B. Athreya & Devin Reilly, 2009. "Consumption smoothing and the measured regressivity of consumption taxes," Economic Quarterly, Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond, vol. 95(Win), pages 75-100.
    6. Cathal O’Donoghue & Jinjing Li & Ilona Cserháti & Péter Elek & Tibor Keresztély & Tibor Takács, 2018. "The Distributional Impact of VAT Reduction for Food in Hungary: Results from a Hungarian Microsimulation Model," International Journal of Microsimulation, International Microsimulation Association, vol. 11(3), pages 2-38.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Carbonnier, Clément, 2014. "The incidence of non-linear price-dependent consumption taxes," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 118(C), pages 111-119.
    2. Boone, Jan & Müller, Wieland, 2012. "The distribution of harm in price-fixing cases," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 30(2), pages 265-276.
    3. Anderson, Simon P. & de Palma, Andre & Kreider, Brent, 2001. "Tax incidence in differentiated product oligopoly," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 81(2), pages 173-192, August.
    4. Takanori Adachi & Michal Fabinger, 2017. "Multi-Dimensional Pass-Through, Incidence, and the Welfare Burden of Taxation in Oligopoly," CIRJE F-Series CIRJE-F-1040, CIRJE, Faculty of Economics, University of Tokyo.
    5. Fabrice Etilé & Sebastien Lecocq & Christine Boizot-Szantai, 2018. "The Incidence of Soft-Drink Taxes on Consumer Prices and Welfare: Evidence from the French " Soda Tax"," PSE Working Papers halshs-01808198, HAL.
    6. Andrej Cupák & Peter Tóth, 2017. "Measuring the Efficiency of VAT reforms: Evidence from Slovakia," Working and Discussion Papers WP 6/2017, Research Department, National Bank of Slovakia.
    7. Qidi Zhang & Leonard F.S. Wang & Yapo Yang, 2020. "Indirect taxation with shadow cost of public funds in mixed oligopoly," Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 41(3), pages 415-425, April.
    8. X. Wang & Jingang Zhao, 2009. "On the efficiency of indirect taxes in differentiated oligopolies with asymmetric costs," Journal of Economics, Springer, vol. 96(3), pages 223-239, April.
    9. Kory Kroft & Jean-William P. Laliberté & René Leal-Vizcaíno & Matthew J. Notowidigdo, 2020. "Salience and Taxation with Imperfect Competition," NBER Working Papers 27409, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    10. Henrik Vetter, 2016. "Tax Reform in Monopolistic Competition with Increasing Preferences for Variety," Public Finance Review, , vol. 44(2), pages 245-262, March.
    11. Sungtak Hong & Kanishka Misra, 2023. "The impact of commodity taxation on product variety: a multi-category investigation," Marketing Letters, Springer, vol. 34(4), pages 591-604, December.
    12. Ferrara, Ida & Missios, Paul & Yildiz, Halis Murat, 2019. "Product quality, consumption externalities, and the role of National Treatment," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 117(C), pages 1-35.
    13. Clément Carbonnier, 2011. "Shifting on prices of per unit and ad valorem consumption taxes, estimation on prices of alcoholic beverages in France," THEMA Working Papers 2011-20, THEMA (THéorie Economique, Modélisation et Applications), Université de Cergy-Pontoise.
    14. Hans Jarle Kind & Marko Köthenbürger & Guttorm Schjelderup, 2006. "Taxation in Two-Sided Markets," CESifo Working Paper Series 1871, CESifo.
    15. Hans Jarle Kind & Marko Köthenbürger & Guttorm Schjelderup, 2005. "Do Consumers Buy Less of a Taxed Good?," CESifo Working Paper Series 1635, CESifo.
    16. Neelanjan Sen & Rajit Biswas, 2017. "Indirect Taxes in Oligopoly in Presence of Licensing Opportunities," Journal of Industry, Competition and Trade, Springer, vol. 17(1), pages 61-82, March.
    17. Alisa Frey & Justus Haucap, 2024. "VAT pass-through: the case of a large and permanent reduction in the market for menstrual hygiene products," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 31(1), pages 160-202, February.
    18. Adachi, Takanori & Fabinger, Michal, 2022. "Pass-through, welfare, and incidence under imperfect competition," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 211(C).
    19. Kuang-Cheng Andy Wang & Ping-Yao Chou & Wen-Jung Liang, 2018. "Specific versus ad valorem taxes in the presence of cost and quality differences," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 25(5), pages 1197-1214, October.
    20. François Boldron & Cyril Hariton, 2003. "Access charge and imperfect competition," Recherches économiques de Louvain, De Boeck Université, vol. 69(3), pages 319-340.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Value Added Tax ; Tax reform ; Distributional effects ; Equivalent Variations ; Japan JEL Classification: D12 ; H24 ; H31;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D12 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - Consumer Economics: Empirical Analysis
    • H24 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Personal Income and Other Nonbusiness Taxes and Subsidies
    • H31 - Public Economics - - Fiscal Policies and Behavior of Economic Agents - - - Household

    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:wrk:wrkesp:32. 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: Margaret Nash (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/dewaruk.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.