Distributional Incidence of the Gasoline Tax in Chile (Incidencia Distributiva del Impuesto a las Gasolinas en Chile) (Spanish)

Abstract:     
This paper estimates the distributional incidence of gasoline taxes in Chile, using the V and VI Family Budget Surveys for this purpose. Tax incidence is estimated based on income and expenditures distribution to consider potential differences between transitory and permanent income. As a measure of tax progressivity the Suits Index is estimated and confidence intervals of the index are obtained using bootstrapping, allowing then to statistically compare changes in tax incidence due to changes in tax rates. The results show that gasolines taxes are moderately progressive in Chile with higher progressivity with respect to expenditures than income. Finally, the simulation of a 42% decreased in the tax rate as the one implemented in 2008 show consistently that its effects in terms of incidence is to reduce the progressivity of the gasoline tax.

Note: downloadable document is in Spanish

Number of Pages in PDF File: 27

Keywords: Tax Incidence, Gasoline Tax, Tax Progressivity, Suits Index, Chile

JEL Classification: H22, C15, L9

working papers series