What Goes Up May Not Come Down: Asymmetric Incidence of Value-Added Taxes
研究发现增值税上调时价格涨幅是下调时降幅的两倍，这种不对称性持续数年并推高企业利润，对低利润率企业影响尤为显著。
This paper provides evidence that prices respond significantly more strongly to increases than to decreases in Value-Added Taxes (VATs). First, using two plausibly exogenous VAT changes, we show that prices respond twice as much to VAT increases as to VAT decreases. Second, we show that this asymmetry results in higher equilibrium profits and markups. Third, we find that firms operating with low profit margins are particularly likely to respond asymmetrically to VAT changes. Fourth, these asymmetric price effects persist several years after VAT changes take place. Fifth, using all VAT changes in the European Union from 1996 to 2015, we find similar levels of asymmetry.