Incidence of Indirect Taxes - Are There Rules of Thumb for Policy-Makers?

Abstract:     
The paper summarizes recent empirical studies on indirect tax incidence and assesses whether the robust explanations from theory and earlier empirical results are confirmed. Although there are a number of influence factors of tax incidence in real markets which have to be analysed on a case-by-case basis, some cautious rules-of-thumb can be deducted which might bring tax policy more in line with both traditional and more recent conclusions.

Number of Pages in PDF File: 24

Keywords: Tax Incidence, Indirect Tax, Tax Policy, VAT

JEL Classification: E62, H22, D30

working papers series