Tax Buoyancy in the Caribbean: Evidence from Heterogenous Panel Cointegration Models

Abstract

This paper provides long and short run tax buoyancy estimates for a group of 12 Caribbean countries over the period 1991-2017. By using various panel regressions estimated by the Mean Group and Pooled Mean Group estimators, this paper finds that the long and short run tax buoyancy estimates are statistically greater than one. However, the results vary by tax categories: with respect to indirect taxes—which accounts for almost 65 percent of total tax revenues—the buoyancy of the long run coefficient significantly less than one (0.35), while for direct taxes it is significantly higher than one (1.33). It was also found that long run tax buoyancy was lower in the post global financial crisis period. With respect to short-run buoyancy, corporate taxes and trade taxes are the most buoyant in the short-run while property taxes were found to be statistically insignificant. For taxes on goods on services, the single most important tax for most countries, both long and short run buoyancy is not significantly different from one.