Measuring Regressivity of Excise Taxes: A Buyers Index

Abstract

A variant of the Suits index is developed for measuring the progressivity of an excise tax distribution among buyers rather than the population (buyers and nonbuyers) as a whole. This new index is more useful for evaluating progressivity of selective excise taxes on products for which the proportion of each income class consisting of buyers varies with income level. In the process of developing the relationship between the buyers index and the Suits index, the links between consumer expenditure patterns and the values of both the Suits index and the buyers index are derived. The article concludes with a comparison of the new buyers index and the Suits index for five products studied for possible excise taxation under the Fish and Wildlife Conservation Act of 1980.