A Tax-Based Test for Nominal Rigidities

52 Pages Posted: 9 Mar 2004 Last revised: 28 Apr 2023

See all articles by James M. Poterba

James M. Poterba

Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) - Department of Economics; National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER)

Julio J. Rotemberg

Harvard University, Business, Government and the International Economy Unit (deceased); National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) (deceased)

Lawrence H. Summers

Harvard University; National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER); Harvard University - Harvard Kennedy School (HKS)

Date Written: June 1985

Abstract

In classical macroeconomic models with flexible wages and prices,whether a tax is levied on producers or consumers does not affect its incidence. However, if wages or prices are rigid in the short run, as they are in Keynesian macroeconomic models, then shifting a tax from one side ofthe market to the other may have real effects. Tax changes therefore provide potential tests for the presence of nominal rigidities. This paper examines the price and output effects of revenue-neutral shifts between direct and indirect taxation. The results, based on post-war data from both Great Britain and the United States, reject the view that wages and prices are completely flexible in the short run.

Suggested Citation

Poterba, James M. and Poterba, James M. and Rotemberg, Julio J. and Summers, Lawrence H., A Tax-Based Test for Nominal Rigidities (June 1985). NBER Working Paper No. w1627, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=336351

James M. Poterba (Contact Author)

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Julio J. Rotemberg

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