scholarly journals Who Really Benefits from Consumption Tax Cuts? Evidence from a Large VAT Reform in France

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 38-63 ◽  
Author(s):  
Youssef Benzarti ◽  
Dorian Carloni

This paper evaluates the incidence of a large cut in value-added taxes (VATs) for French sit-down restaurants in 2009. In contrast to previous studies, which only focus on the price effects of VAT reforms, we estimate the effects of the VAT cut on four groups: workers, firm owners, consumers, and suppliers of material goods. Using a difference-in-differences strategy on firm-level data, we find that: firm owners pocketed more than 55 percent of the VAT cut; consumers, sellers of material goods, and employees shared the remaining windfall with consumers benefiting the least; and the employment effects were limited. (JEL H22, H25, L83)

2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
pp. 77-127 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joaquin Blaum ◽  
Claire Lelarge ◽  
Michael Peters

Firms differ substantially in their participation in foreign input markets. We develop a methodology to measure the aggregate effects of input trade that takes such heterogeneity into account. We provide a theoretical result that holds in a variety of settings: the firm-level data on value added and domestic expenditure shares in material spending is sufficient to compute the change in consumer prices due to a shock to the import environment. We characterize the bias of approaches that rely on aggregate statistics. In an application to French data, input trade reduces the prices of manufacturing products by 27 percent. (JEL D24, E31, F12, F14, L11, L25, L60)


2019 ◽  
Vol 71 (4) ◽  
pp. 1026-1049
Author(s):  
Florian Misch ◽  
Atılım Seymen

AbstractThe paper investigates the effects of temporary consumption tax cuts for selected durables in Turkey in 2009 using firm-level data. Our empirical strategy exploits variation in firm exposure to the tax cuts and at the same time controls for unobserved industry- 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. In line with theoretical predictions, we also find a reversal of these effects following the expiration of the tax cuts.


2012 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mariann Rigo ◽  
Vincent Vandenberghe ◽  
Fábio Waltenberg

Author(s):  
Trung A Dang ◽  
Randall W Stone

Abstract We find firm-level evidence that US banks receive preferential treatment in countries under IMF conditionality. We rely on investment location decisions to infer firms’ expectations about future profits and find that US firms are approximately 53 percent more likely to acquire financial firms in countries under financial conditionality. IMF programs without financial conditionality and FDI in other sectors serve as placebo tests. Financial conditionality has weak effects on investment decisions by non-US firms, which implies a political-economy interpretation. Firm-level data indicate that the distinctive behavior of US firms is not due to advantages of scale or to a US-firm fixed effect, but to US influence in the IMF. Firms from other major IMF shareholders benefit as well, but the effects are much weaker. The effects are concentrated in the politically relevant firms that have local affiliates, which is consistent with the interpretation that firms lobby for preferential treatment.


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