FROM EACH ACCORDING TO HIS SURPLUS - EQUI-PROPORTIONATE SHARING OF COMMODITY TAX BURDENS

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: HINES, JR; HLINKO, JC; LUBKE, TJF
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF PUBLIC ECONOMICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0047-2727
• DOI: 10.1016/0047-2727(94)01489-B
• 发表日期: 1995
• 页码: 417-428
• 关键词: tax incidence; COMMODITY TAXES; consumer surplus

摘要

This paper examines the incidence of commodity taxes, finding that, when demand and marginal cost schedules are linear, the burden of commodity taxation is distributed between buyers and sellers so that each suffers the same percentage reduction in pre-tax surplus. This equi-proportionate reduction in surplus is the outcome of commodity taxes set at any rate, and is unaffected by relative demand and supply elasticities. Hence, when demand and marginal cost schedules are linear, commodity taxes resemble flat-rate taxes imposed on market surplus. Similar results apply to nonlinear schedules within certain ranges.