Value Added Tax (VAT) as introduced in India at state level from April 1, 2005 is widely acclaimed to be a better system than the sales tax on grounds of efficiency. However policy makers did not consider its impact on the distribution of income. Considering both the distributive and efficiency...

The Value Added Tax (VAT) was introduced in India in place of Sales Tax, taking effect in April 1, 2005. These taxes are in the domain of different state governments within the country's federal set up. Although VAT is widely acclaimed to be a better system than the sales tax on grounds of...

This chapter starts with a review of the marginal tax reform methodology that was first advanced by Ahmad and Stern (1984), as well as its second-order variant introduced by Urzúa (2005). After that, it reviews some aspects of the estimation of demand systems, a topic that, although well known...

This paper starts with a review of the marginal tax reform methodology that was first advanced by Ahmad and Stern (1984), as well as its second-order variant introduced by Urzúa (2005). After that, it reviews some aspects of the estimation of demand systems, a topic that, although well known to...

This paper studies the compliance, pricing, and progressivity effects of changing statutory incidence. The recent Wayfair Supreme Court decision granted U.S. states new powers to shift the statutory incidence of taxation from consumers to online retailers, forcing supply side-administration of...

This paper illustrates how Lorenz Curves can be used to identify the best income distribution on social welfare grounds, within a set of alternative income distributions generated by different policy options. After highlighting some drawbacks of using specific functional forms of the Social...

We measure the general redistributive effect in the Mexican fiscal system and its northern border with two decomposition approaches. The novelty of this application lies in the use of non-parametric techniques and the fact that we did not assume any functional relationship among the variables in...

This paper provides an assessment of the poverty and social impact of replacing Ethiopia`s sales tax with a value-added tax (VAT). The results indicate that this reform has not had a major adverse effect on the poorest 40 percent of the population. The VAT is progressive in its incidence, and...

Using comprehensive high-frequency state and local sales tax data, we show that shopping behavior responds strongly to changes in sales tax rates. Even though sales taxes are not observed in posted prices and have a wide range of rates and exemptions, consumers adjust in many dimensions. They...

The sales taxes in the EU - and in several other countries - are practiced as value-added tax of the consumption type with invoice method. Literature on microsimulation models (MSM) for this type of VAT is rare, though the importance of VAT has continuously increased. We discuss the issues of...