Understanding tax revenue and deadweight loss
Religion & Liberty Online

Understanding tax revenue and deadweight loss

Note: This is post #12 in a weekly video series on basic microeconomics.

Why do taxes exist? What are their effects? In this video by Marginal Revolution University, economist Alex Tabarrok explains how taxes affect consumer surplus and producer surplus. He also discusses the concept of deadweight by considering a real-world example from the 1990s: taxing luxury yachts.

(If you find the pace of the videos too slow, I’d recommend watching them at 1.5 to 2 times the speed. You can adjust the speed at which the video plays by clicking on “Settings” (the gear symbol) and changing “Speed” from normal to 1.25, 1.5 or 2.)

Previous in series: Who pays the tax?

Joe Carter

Joe Carter is a Senior Editor at the Acton Institute. Joe also serves as an editor at the The Gospel Coalition, a communications specialist for the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention, and as an adjunct professor of journalism at Patrick Henry College. He is the editor of the NIV Lifehacks Bible and co-author of How to Argue like Jesus: Learning Persuasion from History's Greatest Communicator (Crossway).