Friday 8 December 2017

Assessing the incidence of value-added taxes

a column by Youssef Benzarti and Dorian Carloni for VOX: CEPR&rsquos Policy Portal

In the wake of the Global Crisis, some governments sought to stimulate demand through VAT cuts. This column assesses the success of these measures by investigating who benefited from a VAT cut on sit-down restaurant meals in France. The results show that restaurant owners captured the lions’ share of the tax cut, while employees and consumers benefited substantially less. Further, following subsequent tax increases, restaurant owners increased their prices by four to five times more than they had decreased their prices following the original cut.

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