Evaluating economic benefits of the revitalization vouchers: The case of Taiwan's Triple Stimulus Vouchers

Abstract

This article takes Taiwan's Triple Stimulus Vouchers (TSVs) launched in the second half of 2020 as an example to evaluate the economic benefits of revitalization vouchers during the COVID-19 period. We apply scenario settings and input-output tables to evaluate the policy benefits. The main conclusions are as follows: (1) The issuance of TSVs will induce consumers to use revitalized triple vouchers. As the epidemic is under control domestically and border control continues that ruled out non-citizen consumptions, issuing the TSVs during summer vacations generates positive economic benefits. (2) Using promotional activities TSVs are indeed helpful to boost consumer confidence. (3) According to estimates, the benefit of TSVs to real GDP is between NT$45.062 and 83.727 billion;the economic growth rate increases by 0.1173-0.2156%. (4) TSVs have a significant impact on the service industry. The department stores benefited a lot from the TSV policy, and supermarkets and hypermarkets saw rising revenues. Merchants, small shops, and even hawkers in the streets or traditional markets also felt the strength of economic recovery from the retail consumption growth of TSVs, which also brings economic benefits expected by the policy.