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From The Encyclopedia of Taxation and Tax Policy
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One of the most fundamental questions addressed by public finance economists is that of who bears the final burden of a tax. The basic issue is that tax-induced changes in individual and firm behavior and the associated changes in commodity prices and factor returns are likely to imply that the final burden or "economic incidence" of a tax will be different from its "statutory incidence" - that is, a tax may be partially or fully "shifted" from one set of economic agents to another. The most common methods to analyze the incidence of taxes are partial-equilibrium analysis, static general-equilibrium analysis, dynamic general-equilibrium analysis, and empirical incidence analysis.