The consequences of the value-added tax on inequality

Kaisa Alavuotunki and Jukka Pirttilä

No wp-2015-111, WIDER Working Paper Series from World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER)

Abstract: The adoption of the value-added tax has arguably been one of the most important tax policy measures worldwide, but is also one of the most heatedly debated. While some argue that the VAT has served as a useful tool to boost government revenue, others claim that it is also a regressive tax, contributing to increased inequality within the developing world. Using newly released high-quality macro data, this paper offers updated estimates of the revenue impacts of the VAT and the first estimates on its consequences on inequality at the macro level.

Keywords: Economic development; Equality and inequality; Taxation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.wider.unu.edu/sites/default/files/Publ ... r/PDF/wp2015-111.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
Working Paper: The Consequences of the Value-Added Tax on Inequality (2017)
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:unu:wpaper:wp-2015-111

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in WIDER Working Paper Series from World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER) Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Siméon Rapin ().