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Tax Incidence and Deadweight Loss. Excise Taxes. Tax charged on each unit of a good or service that is sold Most common tax Gasoline, cigarettes Local governments impose excise taxes on services (hotel room rentals). Excise Tax. Renting a room in Potterville Without taxes, - PowerPoint PPT Presentation
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Tax Incidence and Deadweight Loss
Excise Taxes
• Tax charged on each unit of a good or service that is sold
• Most common tax– Gasoline, cigarettes– Local governments impose excise taxes on
services (hotel room rentals)
Excise Tax
• Renting a room in Potterville• Without taxes, – equilibrium price of a room $80– Equilibrium quantity of hotel rooms rented is 10,000
• Now, government imposes an excise tax of $40 per night– Means – every time a room is rented for the night,
the owner of the hotel must pay the city $40• What does this imply about the supply curve?
The Supply and Demand for Hotel Roomsin Potterville
S
D
0 5,000 10,000 15,000
$140
120
100
80
60
40
20
E
B
Price of hotel room
Quantity of hotel roomsEquilibrium
quantity
Equilibrium price
Excise Tax
• Graph shows that the post-tax supply curve shifts up by the amount of the tax compared to the pre-tax supply curve
• At every quantity supplied, the supply price has increased by $40
An Excise Tax Imposed on Hotel Owners
S1
S2
A
B
0 5,000 10,000 15,000
$140
120
100
80
60
40
20
Quantity of hotel rooms
Price
D
EExcise tax = $40 per room
Supply curve shifts upward by the amount of the tax
Excise Tax
• The graph also shows the results of a quota placed on sales
• A quota drives a wedge between the price paid by consumers and the price received by producers
• Excise taxes does the same thing• Excise tax on hotel rooms is actually a tax on
the producers (hotel owners) not the guest
Excise Tax
• What happens if the city levied a tax on consumers instead of producers?– Hotel guests pay $40 for each night stayed
An Excise Tax Imposed on Hotel Guests
A
B
0 5,000 10,000 15,000
$140
120
100
80
60
40
20
Quantity of hotel rooms
E
S
D2
D1
Excise tax = $40 per room
Demand curve shifts downward by the amount of the tax
Price
Both graphs show the same price effectConsumers pay an effective price of $100, producers receive an effective price of
$60, and 5,000 hotel rooms are bought and sold**It doesn’t matter who officially pays the tax – the equilibrium outcome is the
same
Tax Incidence
• Incidence of a tax is a measure of who really pays it
• Who really bears the burden of the tax?• In reality, between consumers and producers,
one group bears more of a burden than the other
Excise Tax Paid by Consumers
• What determines how the burden of an excise tax is allocated between consumers and producers?
• Depends on the shape of the supply and demand curve– Depends on the price elasticity of supply and the
price elasticity of demand
An Excise Tax Paid Mainly By Consumers
D
S
$2.95
2.001.95
Price of gasoline (per gallon)
0 Quantity of gasoline (gallons)
Tax burden falls mainly on consumersExcise tax
= $1 per gallon
When the price elasticity of demand is
low and the price elasticity of supply is
high, the burden of an excise tax falls mainly
on consumers.
Excise Tax Paid by Consumers
• Two key assumptions:• Price elasticity of demand for gasoline is assumed
to be very low, so the demand curve is relatively steep
• Price elasticity of supply of gasoline is assumed to be very high, so the supply curve is relatively flat
• **When the price elasticity of demand is low and the price of elasticity of supply is high, the burden of an excise tax falls mainly on consumers **
Excise Tax Paid by Consumers
• **When the price elasticity of demand is low and the price of elasticity of supply is high, the burden of an excise tax falls mainly on consumers **
• WHY?• A low price elasticity of demand means that
consumers have few substitutes and so little alternatives to buying higher-priced gasoline
An Excise Tax Paid Mainly by Producers
D
S
$6.506.00
1.50
Price of parking space
0 Quantity of parking spaces
Tax burden falls mainly on producers
Excise tax = $5 per parking space
When the price
elasticity of demand is
high and the price
elasticity of supply is low, the
burden of an excise tax falls mainly
on producers.
Excise Tax on Consumers & Producers
• When the price elasticity of demand is higher than the price elasticity of supply, an excise tax falls mainly on producers. When the price elasticity of supply is higher than the price elasticity of demand, an excise tax falls mainly on consumers
• Elasticity (not who pays the tax) determines the incidence of an excise tax
Benefits and Costs of Taxation
• If government is consider whether to impose a tax or how to design a tax system, it must weigh the benefits of a tax against its loses
• Benefit of a tax is the revenue it raises for the government to pay for these services
• Although, comes at a cost – cost is normally larger than the amount consumers and producers pay
Revenue from an Excise Tax
• How much revenue foes the government collect from an excise tax?• In example of hotel rooms……
amount is equal to the area of the shaded rectangle
The Revenue from an Excise Tax
S
B
60 5,000 10,000 15,000
$140
120
100
80
60
40
20
Quantity of hotel rooms
D
EArea = tax
revenue
Excise tax = $40 per room
A
Price of hotel room The tax revenue collected is:
Tax revenue = $40 per room × 5,000 rooms = $200,000
The area of the shaded rectangle is:Area = Height × Width = $40 per room × 5,000
rooms = $200,000
Revenue from an Excise Tax
• General Principle:The revenue collected by an excise tax is equal
to the area of the rectangle whose height is the tax wedge between the supply and demand curves and whose width is the
quantity transacted under the tax.
Tax Rates and Revenue
• From graph above, $40 per room is the tax rate on hotel rooms
• Tax rate is the amount of tax levied per unit of whatever is being taxed
• Tax rates can be in dollar amount per unit of good or service
• Or they are defined as the percentage of the price
Tax Rates and Revenue
• Relationship between tax rates and revenue:• Not a one-for-one relationship• Generally, doubling the excise tax rate on a good
or service won’t double the amount of revenue collected, because the tax increase will reduce the quantity of the good or service transacted
• This relationship is not always positive, some cases raising the tax rate actually reduces the amount of revenue the government collects
Tax Rates and Revenue
Quantity of hotel rooms
Price of hotel room
S
60 ,000 7,50010,000 15,000
$140120
8090
70
40
20
D
E
(a) An excise tax of $20
S
0 5,0002,500 10,000 15,000
$140
120110
80
5040
20
D
E
(b) An excise tax of $60Price of hotel room
Quantity of hotel rooms
Excise tax = $20 per room
Excise tax = $60 per room
Area = tax revenue
Area = tax revenue
Tax Rates and Revenue
• Setting a tax rate high deters a significant number of transactions which is likely to lead to a fall in tax revenue
• Two ways to think about this:• 1. tax increase means that the government
raises more revenue for each unit of the good sold, which other think equal would lead to a rise in tax revenue
Tax Rates and Revenue
2. The tax increase reduces the quantity of sales, which other thinks equal would lead to a fall in tax revenue
• What is the end result?• Depends both on the price elasticizes of
supply and demand and on the initial level of tax
Tax Rates and Revenue• If the price elasticities of both supply and demand are
low, the tax increase won’t reduce the quantity of the good sold very much, so that the tax revenue would definitely rise
• If the price elasticities are high, the result is less certain; of they are high enough, the tax reduces the quantitative sold so much that the tax revenue falls
• Also, if the initial tax rate is low, the government doesn't lose much revenue from the decline in the quantity of the good sold, so the tax increase will definitely increase tax revenue
Tax Rates and Revenue
• Also, if the initial tax rate is low, the government doesn't lose much revenue from the decline in the quantity of the good sold, so the tax increase will definitely increase tax revenue
• If the initial tax rate is high, the result again is less certain
• Tax revenue is likely to fall or rise very little from a tax increase only in cases where the price elasticities are high and there is already a high tax rate
The Costs of Taxation
• What is the cost of taxation?• Actually, a tax, like a quota, prevents mutually
beneficial transactions from occurring• Remember the tax on hotel rooms?• Due to the wedge created by the tax, some
transactions don’t occur that would have occurred without the tax
• Remember deadweight loss?– The cost to society is inefficient—the value of the forgone
mutually beneficial transactions
A Tax Reduces Consumer and Producer Surplus
Q E Quantity
S
E
D
Price
Q T
P E
P C
P P
C
A B
FExcise tax = T
Fall in consumer surplus due to tax
Fall in producer surplus due to tax
Tax Rates and Revenue
• A fall in the price of a good generates a gain in consumer surplus.
• Similarly, a price increase causes a loss to consumers. • So it’s not surprising that in the case of an excise tax,
the rise in the price paid by consumers causes a loss.• Meanwhile, the fall in the price received by producers
leads to a fall in producer surplus.
A tax reduces both, the CS and the PS
Tax Rates and Revenue
• Using a triangle to measure deadweight loss is a technique used in many economic applications– Used to measure deadweight loss produces by
types of taxes other than excise tax, used to measure deadweight loss produced by monopolies, used to evaluate the benefits and costs of public policies because taxation
Tax Rates and Revenue
• When looking at the total amount of inefficiency caused by a tax, we must also take into account resources actually used by the government to collect the tax, and by taxpayers to pay it, over and above the amount of the tax
• Administrative costs of taxes are the resources lost– i.e. the amount of time people spend filling out their
income tax forms and or the money they spend paying someone else to prepare their tax forms
Tax Rates and Revenue
• The total inefficiency caused by a tax is the sum of its deadweight loss and its administrative costs. The general rule for economic policy is that, other things equal, a tax system should be designed to minimize the total inefficiency it imposes on society.
Elasticities and the Deadweight Loss of a Tax
• We know (hopefully) that the deadweight loss from an excise tax arises because it prevents some mutually beneficial transactions from occurring
• The producer and consumer surplus that is forgone because of these missing transactions is equal to the size of the deadweight loss itself
• Larger the number of transactions that are prevented by the tax, the larger the deadweight loss
Elasticities and the Deadweight Loss of a Tax
• To minimize the efficiency costs of taxation, one should choose to tax only those goods for which demand or supply, or both, is relatively inelastic.
• For such goods, a tax has little effect on behavior because behavior is relatively unresponsive to changes in the price.
Elasticities and the Deadweight Loss of a Tax
• In the extreme case in which demand is perfectly inelastic (a vertical demand curve), the quantity demanded is unchanged by the imposition of the tax. As a result, the tax imposes no deadweight loss.
• Similarly, if supply is perfectly inelastic (a vertical supply curve), the quantity supplied is unchanged by the tax and there is also no deadweight loss
• If the goal in choosing whom to tax is to minimize deadweight loss, then taxes should be imposed on goods and services that have the most inelastic response—that is, goods and services for which consumers or producers will change their behavior the least in response to the tax.
Deadweight Loss and Elasticities
Quantity
D
E
(a) Elastic Demand (b)Inelastic Demand
Quantity
D
S
E
S
Deadweight loss is larger when demand is elastic
QE QEQT QT
PE
PC
PP
PE
PC
PPExcise tax = T
Excise tax = T Deadweight
loss is smaller when demand is inelastic
Price Price
Deadweight Loss and Elasticities(c) Elastic Supply (d)Inelastic Supply
Quantity
Price
D
E
S
Quantity
D
E
S
PE
PC
PP
PE
PC
PP
QE QEQT QT
Excise tax = T
Excise tax = T
Deadweight loss is smaller when supply is inelastic
Deadweight loss is larger when supply is elastic
Price
Elasticities and the Deadweight Loss of a Tax
• From the graphs, it is easily seen that to minimize the efficiency costs of taxation, you should choose to tax only those goods for which demand or supply, or both, is relatively inelastic
• For these goods, tax has little effect on the behavior because behavior is relatively unresponsive to changes in the price
