Does Tax Salience Change Consumer Choice?——Evidence from a Natural Experiment

Abstract

Abstract: Based on the theories of Behavioral Economics, this paper builds a theoretical model analysis framework and uses the natural experiment data to analyze how tax salience influences the consumer choice behavior. Results of the propensity score matching empirical analysis of the experiment data show that the existence of tax salience changes the consumer behavior and significantly reduces the consumer's purchases and costs, and this effect varies with different types and different discount of the goods. Therefore, the government should fully consider consumers' response to tax policies when formulating tax policies, and optimize the tax structure so as to better realize the maximization of the social welfare.

Key words: Tax Salience, Consumer Choice Behavior, Nature Experiment

摘要： 本文基于行为经济学相关理论,构建理论模型分析框架,并使用情景模拟实验数据,分析税收凸显性对消费选择行为的影响,实验数据的倾向得分匹配实证分析结果表明:税收凸显性的存在改变了消费者的消费选择,显著降低了消费者的购买量和购买金额,且这种效应还会因商品类别和商品折扣的不同而存在异质性。因此,政府在制定税收政策时,应充分考虑消费者对税收政策的反应程度,优化税制结构,以更好地实现社会福利的最大化。

关键词: 税收凸显性, 消费选择, 自然实验

CLC Number:

F810.42

XUE Chang. Does Tax Salience Change Consumer Choice?——Evidence from a Natural Experiment[J]. , 2020, 36(2): 21-30.

薛畅. 税收凸显性改变了消费选择么?——来自一项情景模拟实验的证据[J]. 财经论丛, 2020, 36(2): 21-30.

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