Do States Tax Wireless Services Inefficiently? Evidence on the Price Elasticity of Demand

14 Pages Posted: 17 Apr 2004

See all articles by Allan T. Ingraham

Allan T. Ingraham

Economists Incorporated

J. Gregory Sidak

Criterion Economics, Inc.

Abstract

The taxation of goods and services by a state is considered efficient when consumer welfare is maximized subject to the condition that the local government raises a specified amount of revenues. According to the Ramsey principle of optimal taxation of commodities, an efficient commodity tax induces little change in consumer behavior and does not fall on a good that is relatively important in the budgets of the poor. Therefore, the optimal commodity tax is one that consumers cannot easily avoid, a characteristic that leads to the conclusion that a particular tax's efficiency will be greater the more insensitive is consumer demand to the price of that good.

States are increasingly relying on the taxation of wireless services as a source of revenue. For example, the average wireless consumer in New York pays a 16 percent tax on his wireless bill, which is nearly double that of the average business tax in New York. In fact, the average state tax rate on wireless services exceeds the average state tax on general business services by 2.34 percentage points. States have not, however, analyzed consumer demand for wireless services to determine whether it is efficient to tax wireless services with such intensity.

In this paper, we estimate the own-price elasticity of demand for wireless service using a survey dataset of wireless consumption. Using data on wireless consumption between 1999 and 2001, we find that the own-price elasticity of demand for wireless services is between -1.12 and -1.29. With these elasticity estimates, we find that reducing the taxation of wireless services by one dollar would improve economic welfare by between $1.23 and $1.95. This empirical finding calls into question the wisdom of the high taxes that many states impose on wireless services.

Keywords: Wireless, taxation, regulation, telecommunications

JEL Classification: A12, D4, D6, H21, H71

Suggested Citation

Ingraham, Allan T. and Sidak, J. Gregory, Do States Tax Wireless Services Inefficiently? Evidence on the Price Elasticity of Demand. Virginia Tax Review, Vol. 24, No. 2, pp. 249-261, Fall 2004, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=525523 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.525523

Allan T. Ingraham

Economists Incorporated ( email )

Washington, DC 20036
United States

J. Gregory Sidak (Contact Author)

Criterion Economics, Inc. ( email )

1750 Tysons Boulevard
Suite 1500
McLean, VA 22102
United States
(202) 518-5121 (Phone)

HOME PAGE: http://www.criterioneconomics.com

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