Fiscal Reform -- Aid or Hindrance: A Computable General Equilibrium (CGE) Analysis for Saudi Arabia

Elizabeth Roos and Philip Adams ()

Centre of Policy Studies/IMPACT Centre Working Papers from Victoria University, Centre of Policy Studies/IMPACT Centre

Abstract: The oil price fell from around $US110 per barrel in 2014 to less than $US50 per barrel at the start of 2017. This put enormous pressure on government budgets within the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) region, especially the budgets of oil exporting countries. The focus of GCC economic policies quickly shifted to fiscal reform. In this paper we use a dynamic CGE model to investigate the economic impact of introducing a 5 per cent Value Added Tax (VAT) and a tax on business profit, with specific reference to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA). Our study shows that although the introduction of new taxes improves government tax revenue, markets are distorted lowering economic efficiency and production due to a tax. In all simulations, real GDP, real investment and capital stock falls in the long-run. This highlights the importance of (1) understanding the potential harm caused to economic efficiency and production due to taxes, and (2) fiscal reform includes both government expenditure reform and identifying non-oil revenue sources. This allows for the design of an optimal tax system that meets all future requirements for each of the individual Gulf States.

Keywords: Computable General Equilibrium (CGE) models; Saudi Arabia; Fiscal reform (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C68 D58 E62 O53 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019-05
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-ara, nep-cmp and nep-mac
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.copsmodels.com/ftp/workpapr/g-301.pdf Initial version, 2019-05 (application/pdf)
https://www.copsmodels.com/elecpapr/g-301.htm Local abstract: may link to additional material. (text/html)

Related works:
Working Paper: Fiscal Reform – Aid or Hindrance: A Computable General Equilibrium (CGE) Analysis for Saudi Arabia (2019)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:cop:wpaper:g-301

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Centre of Policy Studies/IMPACT Centre Working Papers from Victoria University, Centre of Policy Studies/IMPACT Centre Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Mark Horridge ().