The Laspeyres-Paradox: Tax Overshifting in 19th Century Prussia

نویسنده

  • Mark Spoerer
چکیده

Following the seminal work of late 19th century economist Etienne Laspeyres we analyse the incidence of the Prussian milling and butchery tax shortly before its repeal in 1875. A comparison of flour prices in cities which levied this tax with cities which did not reveals unusually strong tax overshifting. Modern theories which explain overshifting of a specific tax argue with quality improvements or imperfect competition fail in this case. Instead, we find that it was large surplus costs induced by tax collection and monitoring that made the milling process so costly and caused unusually large excess burdens. The reason why the tax remained nevertheless basically unchanged for over half a century is that the urban bourgeoisie successfully prevented its repeal because the alternative would have been the introduction of municipal direct taxes (rent-seeking behaviour). JEL classification: N43, H22, B19 * University of Hohenheim (570A), Dept. of Economics and Social Sciences, 70593 Stuttgart, Germany. Tel. +49.711.459.3957, fax +49.711.459.3803, mail: [email protected].

برای دانلود متن کامل این مقاله و بیش از 32 میلیون مقاله دیگر ابتدا ثبت نام کنید

ثبت نام

اگر عضو سایت هستید لطفا وارد حساب کاربری خود شوید

منابع مشابه

The Laspeyres-Paradox: Tax Overshifting in Nineteenth Century Prussia

126 words) Following the seminal work of late nineteenth century economist Etienne Laspeyres we analyse the incidence of the Prussian milling and slaughter tax shortly before its repeal in 1875. A comparison of flour prices in cities which levied this tax with cities that did not reveals unusually strong tax overshifting. Modern theories explain overshifting of a specific tax with quality impro...

متن کامل

The Origins of Tax Systems: A French- American Comparison

This article examines the origins of tax systems. Through a historical comparison of France and the United States, and analysis of several shadow cases, the article explains why the United States has relied more heavily on progressive income taxation than France, which has favored regressive sales taxes. This study traces the origins of these two tax systems to the early 20th century, arguing t...

متن کامل

The position of Persian language and literature in Ottoman’s 19th century literature and historical developments

With the spread of western reforms in the 13th/9th century, Ottoman’s literature was reformed either. To reform Ottoman literature, they decided to transform the Ottoman language and literature relations with Persian language and literature. On one hand, they considered problems of Ottoman literature regarding Pindaric and its inefficiency for entering new areas such as novel, drama, and journa...

متن کامل

Chronicle of Datura Toxicity in the 18th and 19th Century

Background: Datura stramonium is a poisonous and common flowering plant that is a member of the Solanacae family. Datura poisonings are a rare occurrence in the 21st century, making toxicological information on this plant sparse. Historical information on Datura provides useful information on the clinical symptoms and characteristics of poisonings. This review looks at the state of knowledge on...

متن کامل

ذخیره در منابع من


  با ذخیره ی این منبع در منابع من، دسترسی به آن را برای استفاده های بعدی آسان تر کنید

برای دانلود متن کامل این مقاله و بیش از 32 میلیون مقاله دیگر ابتدا ثبت نام کنید

ثبت نام

اگر عضو سایت هستید لطفا وارد حساب کاربری خود شوید

عنوان ژورنال:

دوره   شماره 

صفحات  -

تاریخ انتشار 2009