Value-Added Taxes, Chain Effects, and Informality
构建了一个企业避税的均衡模型，并用巴西企业调查数据验证。模型显示增值税的抵扣机制会形成非正规连锁效应，即非正规企业的客户或供应商更可能非正规；加强某一生产环节的执法会提升上下游的正规化程度。
We present an equilibrium model of tax avoidance and test its implications using a survey of firms in Brazil. In the model, the credit method used to collect value-added tax (VAT) creates informality chains—clients or suppliers of informal firms are more likely to be informal. An increase in enforcement in a production stage increases formality downstream and upstream. Various empirical measures of formality of suppliers and buyers, and of enforcement downstream and upstream, are positively correlated with formality. When the VAT is applied in a single stage of production at a rate estimated by the authorities, these chain effects disappear.