Arbeitspapier

The pass-through of temporary VAT rate cuts: Evidence from German retail prices

On 1 July 2020, value added tax (VAT) rates were reduced in Germany to fight the economic consequences of the Corona pandemic. The VAT rate reduction is temporary as rates will return to their previous level on 1 January 2021. We study the effects of the temporary VAT rate cut on German supermarket retail prices using an extensive webscrapped data set covering the daily prices of roughly 190,000 products. To identify the causal price effects, we compare the development of prices in Germany to those in Austria. Our findings indicate a nearly full pass-through of the VAT rate reduction on prices. On average, prices in German supermarket retail decreased by 2% after the implementation of the VAT rate reduction. We also provide evidence that prices in more competitive product markets decreased to a larger extent.

Sprache
Englisch

Erschienen in
Series: ifo Working Paper ; No. 341

Klassifikation
Wirtschaft
Price Level; Inflation; Deflation
Taxation and Subsidies: Incidence
Business Taxes and Subsidies including sales and value-added (VAT)
Thema
value added tax
tax incidence
price effects
competition

Ereignis
Geistige Schöpfung
(wer)
Fuest, Clemens
Neumeier, Florian
Stöhlker, Daniel
Ereignis
Veröffentlichung
(wer)
ifo Institute - Leibniz Institute for Economic Research at the University of Munich
(wo)
Munich
(wann)
2020

Handle
Letzte Aktualisierung
10.03.2025, 11:44 MEZ

Datenpartner

Dieses Objekt wird bereitgestellt von:
ZBW - Deutsche Zentralbibliothek für Wirtschaftswissenschaften - Leibniz-Informationszentrum Wirtschaft. Bei Fragen zum Objekt wenden Sie sich bitte an den Datenpartner.

Objekttyp

  • Arbeitspapier

Beteiligte

  • Fuest, Clemens
  • Neumeier, Florian
  • Stöhlker, Daniel
  • ifo Institute - Leibniz Institute for Economic Research at the University of Munich

Entstanden

  • 2020

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