出口退税、贸易盈余和外汇储备的一般均衡分析与中国的实证

本文构建了一个简单的大国开放经济一般均衡模型,从理论上探讨了外汇储备从贸易盈余时的短期均衡到贸易平衡时的长期均衡的动态变化过程,并在此基础上量化分析了降低出口退税率对长期均衡时的外汇储备的影响。研究表明,降低出口退税率在短期内对减少贸易盈余和控制外汇储备增量有一定的帮助,但长期来看则与出口产品的价格弹性密切相关,只有降低那些价格弹性较大的产品的出口退税率,才能够有效地减少长期均衡时的外汇储备,否则可能产生适得其反的效果。中国数据的实证研究支持了理论模型的结论。由于中国的出口产品总体缺乏价格弹性,因此,近年来实行的一系列出口退税政策改革在长期内使国家外汇储备出现了一定程度的增加。本文最后提出了相关的政策建议。     

Asymmetric Tax Policy Responses in Large Economies With Cross-Border Pollution

We build a model of cross-border pollution between two large open economies, one importing the polluting good and the other exporting it, and derive their non-cooperative trade and environmental tax policies. We show among other things, that (1) in response to a bilateral reduction in trade taxes by both countries, the former country’s optimal policy is to lower its Nash emissions tax while the latter’s is to raise it, and (2) in response to an increase in emissions tax rates by both countries, the former country’s optimal reaction is to raise its Nash import tariff, while the latter’s is to reduce its Nash export tax. That is, in the present context, freer trade leads the exporting country to adopt stricter while the importing country laxer environmental tax policies.     

Tax cuts and enterprises’ R&D intensity: Evidence from a natural experiment in China

This paper studies the impact of tax cuts on enterprises’ R&D intensity. We use a natural experiment involving China’s business tax changing to value-added tax (“BT to VAT”) to identify any causality. The results reveal that this tax reform has prompted enterprises to increase their research and development (R&D) investment. Specifically, a stronger ability to transfer tax, results in this change having a more significant promotional effect on enterprises’ R&D intensity. Further analysis demonstrates that firms with different ownership types and in different industries respond differently to the “BT to VAT” policy. Our findings are only significant for non-state-owned and other modern service enterprises. This paper provides a theoretical and empirical basis for detailed analyses of the effects of “BT to VAT” policy, particularly the government’s subsequent improvement to the tax reform policy, to further stimulate enterprise investments in R&D as well as industrial upgrading.     

Impact of VAT Reform on Swedish Restaurants: A Synthetic Control Group Approach*

In this paper, we investigate the impact on firms of the value added tax (VAT) reform that took effect in Sweden on 1 January 2012 for restaurant and catering services. Unlike previous research, we use a synthetic control group approach to construct our counterfactual. Our analysis shows that the VAT reduction had a positive effect on turnover, total wages, employment, profit margins, and net entry of firms. The effects of the reform tend to decrease over time. In all, the results point to an overall better performance for the restaurant industry compared with what it would have been in absence of the reform.     

A general framework for measuring VAT compliance rates

Summary measures of Value Added Tax (VAT) compliance rates are valuable for identifying problem areas in VAT implementation. They are also essential for meaningful crosscountry and crosstime comparisons of VAT compliance. We present a comprehensive and general framework for calculating VAT compliance rates at both the economy wide and detailed sectoral levels. Unlike existing measures of VAT compliance, our framework isolates a compliance measure from the effects on VAT receipts of detailed features of VAT systems as actually implemented by tax authorities. These features include multiple VAT rates, exemptions, registration rates, refund limitations, informal activity, taxation of domestic nonresidents and undeclared imports. We implement our comprehensive VAT compliance measure for Vietnam, a country with a complex VAT system. Our estimate of Vietnam's VAT compliance rate is about 13 percentage points higher than that calculated by the most popular measure of compliance, Collection Efficiency (CE). Our method facilitates decomposition of the difference between CE and our VAT compliance measure into individual contributions by the statutory and structural features of Vietnam's VAT regime.     

On selective indirect tax reform in developing countries

The current consensus on indirect tax reform in developing countries favors a reduction in trade taxes with an increase in VAT to raise revenue. The theoretical results on selective reform that underlie this consensus are, however, derived from partial models that ignore the existence of an informal economy. Once the incomplete coverage of VAT due to an informal economy is acknowledged, we show that, contrary to the current consensus, the standard revenue-neutral selective reform of trade taxes and VAT reduces welfare under plausible conditions. Moreover, a VAT base broadening with a revenue-neutral reduction in trade taxes may also reduce welfare. The results raise serious doubts about the wisdom of the indirect tax reform policies pursued by a large number of developing countries.     

Will that be cash or credit? Payment preferences and rising VAT in Argentina

This article studies how Argentina’s value-added tax (VAT) revenue has risen to historic highs since its 2001 sovereign default and continues to grow despite unchanged VAT rates, slow economic growth, stagnant household consumption, and low commodity prices after 2010. In 2015, VAT revenue accounted for one-quarter of all tax revenue in Argentina. We show that Argentina’s banked population went from less than 41.6% in 2003 to 89.6% in 2016. Consequently, there was significant growth in electronic payments via credit cards and debit cards. Using time series regression, the authors show that the rising banked population and card growth is correlated with VAT-to-GDP increases from 2002 to 2015. The authors posit that one reason for these correlations is that some consumption is shifting from informal (harder to tax) markets to formal (easier to tax markets) as cash use declined and card use grew. Also, rising electronic payments likely explains improved VAT compliance as well—the Argentine VAT noncompliance rate averaged 36.4% between 2000 and 2005 but improved to 20.5% between 2006 and 2010 (Trigueros, Longinotti, & Vecorena, 2013).     

The Environmental Conundrum of Rare Earth Elements

Clean technologies, such as solar panels and wind turbines, help to curb global emissions, but they require dirty inputs for their production—i.e., mining rare earth elements (REEs) pollutes local environments. REEs are also the object of rent-shifting strategic trade policies, as highlighted by a recent WTO ruling against China’s quotas and tariffs on exports of REEs. We construct a three-country trade model with an environmental damage function, in order to examine the effects of three policies with different implications for the equilibrium quantities of dirty inputs and clean technologies: a downstream subsidy, an upstream export tariff, and an upstream pollution tax. We relate the welfare implications of the policies to the parameters of the damage function and to the number of downstream competitors. The effects of a unilateral policy switch from an export tariff to a domestic pollution tax, as suggested by China’s reaction to the WTO challenge, are also examined.     

Revenue-increasing and welfare-enhancing reform of taxes on exports

The loss of revenue from a reduction in export taxes has been a concern for trade policy reform in many developing countries. We discuss a strategy for selective reform of taxes on exports that enhances welfare and increases revenue. The strategy involves a reduction in the export tax on a given commodity with an offsetting increase in production tax to keep the producer price unchanged. This strategy is especially promising for exportables with a net subsidy on domestic consumption due to high export taxes and low consumption taxes.     

Tax-motivated transfer pricing and US intrafirm trade prices

This paper analyzes monthly data on US international trade prices between 1997 and 1999 in order to investigate the impact of tax influences on intrafirm trade prices. Results indicate that there is substantial evidence of tax-motivated transfer pricing in US intrafirm trade prices. There is a strong and statistically significant relationship between countries’ tax rates and the prices of intrafirm transactions. Controlling for other variables that affect trade prices, as country tax rates are lower, US intrafirm export prices are lower, and US intrafirm import prices are higher. This finding is consistent with theoretical predictions regarding tax-motivated income shifting behavior.     

服务贸易的货物贸易条件效应研究——基于伯格斯模型的分析与扩展

文章基于伯格斯模型,分析检验了服务贸易的净进口与我国货物价格贸易条件恶化之间的关系,初步证明了该模型在我国的适用性。进一步地,文章对2004-2008年我国价格贸易条件恶化有所趋缓这一特征进行了分析。结果表明,不同服务部门的净进口对我国货物贸易条件的影响不尽相同。文章得出的政策启示在于:当考察我国服务业开放和服务贸易自由化的收益时,要同时注意到货物价格贸易条件恶化可能带来的福利损失;我国在制定服务业对外开放与服务贸易自由化发展战略时,采取逐步开放和参与的战略尤为重要;另外,可以优先加强对通信、建筑、计算机和信息服务、咨询以及电影音像五大类服务部门的扶持以促进其出口。     

The value added tax: Its causes and consequences

This paper explores the causes and consequences of the remarkable rise of the value added tax (VAT), asking what has shaped its adoption and, in particular, whether it has proved an especially effective form of taxation. It is first shown that a tax innovation, such as the introduction of a VAT, reduces the marginal cost of public funds if and only if it also leads an optimizing government to increase the tax ratio. This leads to the estimation, on a panel of 143 countries for 25 years, of a system describing both the probability of VAT adoption and the revenue impact of the VAT. The results point to a rich set of determinants of VAT adoption, and to a significant but complex impact on the revenue ratio. The estimates suggest, very tentatively, that most countries which have adopted a VAT have thereby gained a more effective tax instrument, though this is less apparent in sub-Saharan Africa.     

Environmental regulation and intra-industry trade

The paper analyses complex interactions between intra-industry trade (IIT) and environment by extending Krugman's model of monopolistic competition and trade. It is found that an increase in exogenous environmental tax by a country leads to a fall in its output (the scale effect) and aggregate pollution, and an increase in its number of varieties (the selection effect). With IIT, if Home is a net exporter, an increase in its environmental stringency leads to a negative scale effect, which reduces its export demand and raises its import demand. In contrast, a positive selection effect reduces its import demand. However, the first-order scale effect on exports dominates the second-order effect on imports, implying a rise in Home's share of IIT with Foreign. The opposite holds true when Home is a net importer. Furthermore, the impact of a rise in environmental tax on aggregate welfare comprises the following counteracting effects: a negative scale effect, a positive selection effect, a lower level of aggregate pollution and a higher environmental tax revenue in autarky, and two additional effects, namely, changes in the level of exports and imports, under free trade. The overall change in aggregate welfare, in both autarky and free trade, is in general ambiguous.     

Exchange rate and foreign GDP elasticities of Swiss exports across sectors and destination countries

This article uses a detailed breakdown of Swiss trade flows to identify how the impact of the two main determinants of Switzerland’s exports – foreign demand and the real exchange rate – varies across sectors and export destinations. Our main findings are that (i) both foreign demand and exchange rate elasticities vary substantially across both export sectors and export destinations. (ii) Foreign demand trends are more important for structural considerations than the exchange rate. This is due to the fact that exports of the two largest export sectors are relatively sensitive to long-run foreign demand developments while they are relatively insensitive to changes in the exchange rate. (iii) The sectoral structure of Switzerland’s exports has shifted towards goods that have a lower short-run demand elasticity and a higher long-run demand elasticity. Goods exports are thus less influenced by business cycle fluctuations while they benefit more from long-term growth trends. (iv) The export share of sectors with a relatively low exchange rate elasticity has increased. However, this result is mainly driven by the strong rise in exports of chemicals and pharmaceuticals as well as precision instruments and watches, which are also the two important sectors responsible for the Swiss trade surplus.     

Impact of oil price changes on Turkey’s exports

Substantial decline in oil prices observed since the second half of 2014 has brought forward discussions on the impact of oil prices on the external balance. This decline is expected to shift real income from oil exporter countries to oil importer countries. In this context, we study the effect of change in oil prices on Turkey’s exports taking into account the fact that Turkey’s export to oil exporting countries has approximately one-third share in total exports, while export to oil importing countries has a share of two-thirds. At the first step, we analyse the effect of oil prices on economic growth of trade partners of Turkey, where countries are grouped according to their net oil export position. We find that the effect of oil prices on different country groups’ growth is asymmetric. In the second stage, for two groups of countries, we estimate growth-export elasticity through Turkey’s export demand function. Finally, we calculate the net effect of oil prices on exports considering different income effects caused by oil price change on each country groups. Results indicate that the net effect of oil prices on the exports is limited given the current export shares.     

人民币实际汇率错位对出口贸易影响的实证研究

本文在既有文献的基础上,通过结合我国经济转型的特点,研究了人民币实际汇率错位对出口贸易的影响。文中提出了更加合理的模型,引入关税(出口退税额)、政府支出、贸易条件等变量,通过Johansen协整检验、误差修正模型、格兰杰因果检验、脉冲响应函数和预测方差分解等计量方法进行了实证检验,结果表明,1978￣2005年,人民币实际汇率错位对出口贸易产生负面影响。其后,运用二元离散选择模型(Logit模型)进一步对二者关系进行了考察,得出了人民币实际汇率错位幅度与净出口呈负相关的结论,即汇率错位幅度越小,越有利于出口,从而出现贸易顺差。     

增值税扩围改革有助于减轻服务业税负吗?——基于投入产出表的分析

增值税扩围改革对服务业行业流转税负担的影响同时包含"税率提高的增税效应"与"进项抵扣的减税效应"。利用投入产出表数据分析并测算增值税扩围改革影响各服务业行业流转税负变动的净效应,结果发现:不同服务业行业的税负变化情况差异较大,商务服务业等大多数行业的税负将减轻,但租赁业等部分行业的税负会加重,税改后的增值税税率水平选择与中间投入比率是影响服务业行业税负变动的主要因素。为了优化服务业发展的税收环境,使增值税扩围改革有助于减轻服务业的流转税负,应根据税负平衡点审慎选择服务业行业税改后适用的增值税税率。当前制定的租赁业、交通运输业的试点税率水平偏高,有必要予以降低。     

欧债危机与中国出口贸易的动态变化——基于细分贸易方式和商品类别的经验研究

本文梳理了欧债危机对出口贸易影响的作用机制,在此基础上采用我国2008年10月至2011年12月的月度数据,从出口的目标市场、细分商品分类以及贸易方式等多个维度进行了深入的实证研究。研究结果表明：（1）外需冲击是欧债危机影响我国出1：2贸易的最主要因素,国外需求对于我国总体出口的短期弹性和长期弹性分别为2．1和3．1,说明欧债危机引起的国外需求下降对总体出口的影响存在一定的时滞效应。（2）汇率和融资成本因素在本轮欧债危机中,对我国出口贸易的影响则相对较小。（3）外需冲击对不同目标市场、不同产品类别以及不同贸易方式出口的影响程度均存在显著的差异。此外,国外需求是我国出口贸易变动的格兰杰原因。     

增值税扩围改革的价格影响与福利效应

"十二五"规划建议明确将"扩大增值税征收范围,相应调减营业税等税收"作为下一步税制改革的重要内容。文章通过建立价格模型分析了不同的扩围方案对减少重复征税和降低产品税负的影响,并利用住户调查数据、投入产出方法和实际税收数据测算了增值税扩围改革的福利效应。研究发现,将增值税扩大到生产性服务业将改善居民福利,但具有累退性;全面扩围的福利改善作用小于生产性扩围,但具有累进性。     

双边贸易、外汇市场规模、网络外部性与美元的国际地位——基于国别(地区)市场的实证研究

美元堪称世界的"霸权"货币,其地位的维持要借助在位货币的优势和外力支持,本文通过面板模型对美元国际地位的影响因素进行了实证分析。在静态面板模型中发现,一国(地区)同美国的实际进出口贸易额、一国(地区)外汇市场规模对美元的国际地位均产生重要的正面影响,这表明一国(地区)与美国的实际进出口贸易额越大或一国(地区)外汇市场越发达,该国(地区)对美元的需求量越大。随后的动态面板模型不仅支持了上述结论,而且发现前一期外汇市场的实际货币交易量也是影响美元充当主要国际货币的重要因素,一国(地区)前一期外汇市场的实际货币交易量越大,其越青睐于持有美元,美元在该国(地区)的地位就越高。这一结论证实了网络外部性效应所发挥的重要作用。