Consumer Prices in German Food E‐Retailing: the Impact of the Value Added Tax Cut in 2020

IF 2.4 Q2 AGRICULTURAL ECONOMICS & POLICY
Johann Scharnhop, Jens‐Peter Loy
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Abstract

SummaryIn July 2020, the German government reduced the VAT rate for six months in order to stimulate private consumption and support the economy, which had been weakened by the Covid‐19 pandemic. It was crucial for the success of the tax cut that retailers passed it on to consumers by reducing retail prices. This article applies a fixed effects estimation model to analyse the price effects of the VAT reduction in grocery e‐retailing. It uses price data collected directly from the websites for major food categories of four food e‐retailers, Bringmeister, MyTime, Real and Rewe. The tax reduction overall was largely passed on to consumers by price reductions. However, the pass‐through rates, i.e. the extent to which the tax rate change was translated into lower prices, varied among the stores, ranging from 16 to 134 per cent, with the highest rate being for Bringmeister. The pass‐through rate for Rewe was 84 per cent. Also, the timing of the pass‐through varies. The highly divergent pass‐through rates were below the expectations of politicians and the announcements made in advance by food retailers, suggesting some strategic pricing within and between stores. For future VAT reduction initiatives, the results of this study and consumers' reactions to price changes should be considered in more detail in order to complete the assessment of the effectiveness of such measures.
德国食品网络零售业的消费者价格:2020 年增值税削减的影响
摘要 2020 年 7 月,德国政府降低了增值税率,为期 6 个月,以刺激私人消费,支持因 Covid-19 大流行病而疲软的经济。零售商通过降低零售价格将其转嫁给消费者是减税成功的关键。本文采用固定效应估计模型分析了增值税下调对杂货网络零售的价格影响。文章使用了直接从四家食品网络零售商(Bringmeister、MyTime、Real 和 Rewe)的主要食品类网站上收集的价格数据。总体而言,减税在很大程度上通过降价转嫁给了消费者。然而,税率变化转化为价格下降的传递率(即税率变化转化为价格下降的程度)在不同商店之间存在差异,从 16% 到 134% 不等,其中 Bringmeister 的传递率最高。Rewe 的转嫁率为 84%。此外,转嫁的时间也各不相同。差异巨大的转嫁率低于政治家的预期和食品零售商的提前公告,这表明商店内部和商店之间存在一些战略性定价。对于未来的增值税减税举措,应更详细地考虑本研究的结果和消费者对价格变化的反应,以完成对此类措施有效性的评估。
本文章由计算机程序翻译,如有差异,请以英文原文为准。
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来源期刊
EuroChoices
EuroChoices AGRICULTURAL ECONOMICS & POLICY-
CiteScore
5.20
自引率
7.10%
发文量
22
期刊介绍: EuroChoices is a full colour, peer reviewed, outreach journal of topical European agri-food and rural resource issues, published three times a year in April, August and December. Its main aim is to bring current research and policy deliberations on agri-food and rural resource issues to a wide readership, both technical & non-technical. The need for this is clear - there are great changes afoot in the European and global agri-food industries and rural areas, which are of enormous impact and concern to society. The issues which underlie present deliberations in the policy and private sectors are complex and, until now, normally expressed in impenetrable technical language.
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