The effect of legislated tax changes on the trade balance: Empirical evidence for the United States, Germany, and the United Kingdom

Abstract

This study uses a narrative account of quarterly discretionary changes in tax liabilities from 1974Q4 to 2018Q2 in a VAR setting to examine whether legislative tax changes affect the trade balance in the US, Germany, and the UK. Six different types of legislative tax changes are considered, including indirect tax changes, personal income tax changes, and business tax changes. The results show that, in general, reductions in aggregated tax liabilities tend to reduce exports in the US and the UK, whereas imports tend to increase, leading to a fall in the net-exports-to-GDP ratio. However, this pattern does not necessarily hold for disaggregated tax changes. Moreover, the results for Germany differ from those for the US and the UK. Overall, the economic magnitude of the estimated effects of tax changes on trade variables is relatively small.