The Burden of Taxation

Abstract

Applied tax incidence studies have concluded that the burden of the entire tax system is approximately proportional to income, a conclusion that depends critically on the assumption that sales and excise taxes are regressive. This paper shows that sales and excise taxes are progressive elements in the tax system when analyzed in a general-equilibrium model where government transfers are an important source of income. Consequently, the entire tax system is highly progressive under competitive assumptions about tax incidence. Moreover, the degree of progressivity is virtually unaffected when noncompetitive assumptions about tax incidence are employed.