The Effects of Countercyclical Fiscal Policy: Firm Level Evidence from Temporary Consumption Tax Cuts in Turkey

The paper investigates the effects of temporary consumption tax cuts using firm-level data. As part of its countercyclical measures implemented during the recent global economic crisis, Tur-key temporarily lowered consumption taxes on selected durables. Our empirical strategy ex-ploits variation in firm exposure to the tax cut which allows us to control for unobserved indus-try- and region-specific shocks to address potential endogeneity. Using data on the change of sales of firms that benefited from this measure and of those that did not over different periods, we find positive and robust effects of consumption tax cuts on the change of firm sales which is consistent with theoretical predictions.