In this paper, we simulate the effects of tax reforms aimed at encouraging healthier grain consumption. We use a rich data set on household grain consumption in 2003 from the market research institute GfK Sweden, combined with information on the nutritional content of the consumption. We estimate behavioral parameters, which are used to simulate the impact on the average household of tax reform...

This paper aims to provide a quantitative analysis of the influence of an aging population on the financing of Japan’s universal health insurance system and potential reform policies. We construct a general equilibrium life-cycle model to study the effects of aging on the tax burden, individual behaviors, the aggregate economy, and welfare. We also evaluate various policy alternatives designed ...

For any given order of stochastic dominance, standard concentration curves are decomposed into contribution curves corresponding to within-group inequalities, between-group inequalities, and transvariational inequalities. We prove, for all orders, that contribution curve dominance implies systematically welfare-improving tax reforms and conversely. Accordingly, we point out some undesirable fis...

We analyze differential redistributive effects, voting preferences and revenue elasticities of bilinear tax reforms that are applied to dual taxes or, more generally, to two different one-dimensional taxes. We prove that a partial order -which induces a latticebased on the Lorenz dominance criterion can be established if certain conditions on the tax reform policy and the income distribution ho...

The point of this paper is to measure empirically the distribution of the commodity tax burden between consumers and producers. For that purpose, two French reforms are studied. These reforms are steep decreases of the VAT rate on housing repair services on the one hand, and on new car sales on the other hand, the last sector being far more concentrated. The consumer share of the commodity tax ...

This paper presents a methodological approach for the analysis of tax incidence that encompasses familiar forms of taxation in a general and analytically convenient model. In oligopolistic industries, the performance of a tax depends on the sensitivity of the unit tax rate to changes in industry output. Output-elastic tax schedules are less likely to be over-shifted and have superior welfare pr...

To understand the role of evidence in tax policy design, this paper organizes the empirical analysis of reform under five loosely related headings: (i) key margins of adjustment, (ii) measurement of effective tax rates, (iii) the importance of information and complexity, (iv) evidence on the size of responses, and (v) implications from theory for tax design. The context for the discussion is th...

This paper adds to the recent body of literature that uses individual level data to assess the effects of tax policy on self-employment. Specifically, this study uses repeated cross-section data from the 1983, 1989, 1992, 1995, and 1998 Surveys of Consumer Finances (SCF) against the background of the tax reforms of 1986 and 1993 to gauge the influence of taxes on selfemployment. Following the t...