A research paper for the National Bureau of Economic Research prepared by three professors at Ohio State’s Fisher College of Business documents the finding that when states adopt sales on online purchase, “households reduce Amazon exenditures by 9.5 percent.” At least their direct Amazon purchases — since at the same time, purchases from other online sellers, go up 20 percent. Overall physical retailers picked up 2 percent in sales as a result of level playing field on sales tax. As you would also expect, the team found “the effect to be more pronounced for large purchases.” Consumers “decrease their spending […]
