Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/232400 
Authors: 
Year of Publication: 
2020
Series/Report no.: 
CESifo Working Paper No. 8803
Publisher: 
Center for Economic Studies and Ifo Institute (CESifo), Munich
Abstract: 
The value-added tax is one of the most important tax revenue sources in many countries. However, it is sometimes considered unfair as it ultimately hits consumption, and poorer households spend a greater share of their income on consumption. But this depends on whether, and to what degree, the value-added tax is actually passed on to consumers. Exploiting an exogenous value-added tax reform in Germany, I use an event study and a differences-in-differences approach to investigate the pass-through to consumers for a wide range of commodities. On average, I find a modestly positive but statistically insignificant effect on prices. However, there are differences in tax incidence between commodity groups and anticipatory price effects well in advance of the actual implementation of the value-added tax reform.
Subjects: 
consumer price index
value-added tax
tax incidence
fiscal policy
JEL: 
E31
H25
H22
H31
Document Type: 
Working Paper
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