Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/155621 
Year of Publication: 
2017
Series/Report no.: 
CESifo Working Paper No. 6379
Publisher: 
Center for Economic Studies and ifo Institute (CESifo), Munich
Abstract: 
We show that an insight from taxation theory allows identification of both the supply and demand elasticities with only one instrument. Ramsey (1928) and subsequent models of taxation assume that a tax levied on the demand side only affects demand through the price after taxation. Econometrically, we show that this assumption functions as an additional exclusion restriction. Under the Ramsey Exclusion Restriction (RER) a tax reform can serve to simultaneously identify elasticities of supply and demand. We develop a TSLS estimator for both elasticities, a test to assess instrument strength and a test for the RER. Our result extends to a supply-demand system with J goods, and a setting with supply-side or non-linear taxes. Further, we show that key results in the sufficient statistics literature rely on the RER. One example is Harberger’s formula for the excess burden of a tax. We apply our method to the Norwegian labor market.
Subjects: 
tax reform
instrumental variable
supply and demand elasticities
tax incidence
payroll taxation
JEL: 
C36
H22
H31
H32
J22
J23
Document Type: 
Working Paper
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