The Role of Value-Added Tax in the Development of Social Justice in Iran

Mohammad  Esmaeil Laeini; Mohammad Khezri; Bijan  Safavi

Authors

Mohammad Esmaeil Laeini Ph.D. Student, Department of Accounting and Economic, ST.C., Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran Author https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5544-8468
Mohammad Khezri Department of Economics, ST.C., Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0043-789X
Bijan Safavi Department of Accounting and Economic, ST.C., Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran Author https://orcid.org/0009-0008-7005-799X

Keywords:

value-added tax, ; social justice, Gini coefficient, autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) model, Iranian economy

Abstract

Value-added tax (VAT) is considered one of the most important fiscal policy instruments available to governments for financing public revenues and, at the same time, a potential instrument for income redistribution and the realization of social justice. The present study aimed to examine the role of value-added tax in promoting social justice in the Iranian economy. In terms of purpose, this research is applied, and in terms of methodology, it is a descriptive-correlational study based on time-series analysis. The statistical population and sample comprised annual macroeconomic data for Iran over the period 1992–2022 (31 observations), collected from the Statistical Bulletin of the Central Bank, the World Bank, and the World Income Inequality Database. Data were analyzed using the Pesaran, Shin, and Smith bounds-testing approach and the unrestricted error correction model (UECM), together with unit root tests, classical diagnostic tests, and the CUSUM structural stability test using econometric software. The findings indicated that although the inclusion of structural control variables substantially increased the explanatory power of the model, no conclusive evidence was found at the 95% confidence level for a statistically significant long-run relationship between value-added tax and the Gini coefficient. It is concluded that the effectiveness of value-added tax in promoting social justice is strongly conditional upon complementary redistributive policies and the structural conditions of the macroeconomy.

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