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Anticipation, Tax Avoidance, and the Price Elasticity of Gasoline Demand

Author

Listed:
  • John Coglianese
  • Lucas W. Davis
  • Lutz Kilian
  • James H. Stock
Abstract
Least-squares estimates of the response of gasoline consumption to a change in the gasoline price are biased toward zero, given the endogeneity of gasoline prices. A seemingly natural solution to this problem is to instrument for gasoline prices using gasoline taxes, but this approach tends to yield implausibly large price elasticities. We demonstrate that anticipatory behavior provides an important explanation for this result. Gasoline buyers increase purchases before tax increases and delay purchases before tax decreases, rendering the tax instrument endogenous. Including suitable leads and lags in the regression restores the validity of the IV estimator, resulting in much lower elasticity estimates.

Suggested Citation

  • John Coglianese & Lucas W. Davis & Lutz Kilian & James H. Stock, 2016. "Anticipation, Tax Avoidance, and the Price Elasticity of Gasoline Demand," CESifo Working Paper Series 5764, CESifo.
    • Handle: RePEc:ces:ceswps:_5764
    as

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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    IV; price elasticity of demand; gasoline; anticipation; intertemporal substitution; storage;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • H23 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Externalities; Redistributive Effects; Environmental Taxes and Subsidies
    • H26 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Tax Evasion and Avoidance
    • Q41 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Energy - - - Demand and Supply; Prices
    • Q47 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Energy - - - Energy Forecasting

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