Who Really Benefits from Consumption Tax Cuts? Evidence from a Large VAT Reform in France

By Youssef Benzarti, Dorian Carloni. American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, 2016

116 citations recorded by the source corpus.

This paper evaluates the incidence of a large cut in value-added taxes (VATs) for French sit-down restaurants in 2009. In contrast to previous studies, which only focus on the price effects of VAT reforms, we estimate the effects of the VAT cut on four groups: workers, firm owners, consumers, and suppliers of material goods. Using a difference-in-differences strategy on firm-level data, we find that: firm owners pocketed more than 55 percent of the VAT cut; consumers, sellers of material goods, and employees shared the remaining windfall with consumers benefiting the least; and the employment effects were limited. (JEL H22, H25, L83)

Subfields: Accounting, Economics and Econometrics

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