Investigating Value Added Tax Impact on Economic Growth (Case Study of Iran and Other Developing Countries)

Abstract Since economic growth affects many economic indexes such as employment, poverty, distribution of income, health, etc., investigating the factors influencing economic growth is of great importance. This would be even more important in developing countries, which face such problems as poverty, unemployment etc. Considering the fact that the VAT is becoming more popular in developing countries and the dearth of research on the effects of this type of tax on economic variables, especially economic growth, the need for this study is felt to shed lights on the related issues. In this paper, using a panel of 62 developing countries and the GMM-system method, we examined the effect of VAT on economic growth and its sources, including growth of capital accumulation and the growth of productivity. The results were consistent with previous research, indicating a positive and significant effect of VAT on economic growth and its sources.