Who Would Benefit from Repealing Tampon Taxes? Empirical Evidence from New Jersey

The study examined the impact of repealing tampon taxes in New Jersey, using the 2005 elimination of menstrual hygiene products from the sales tax base as a natural experiment. It found that the tax break was fully passed on to consumers, but the benefits were not equally distributed. Low-income consumers benefited more than the size of the repealed tax, while high-income consumers shared the tax break equally with producers. The results suggested that repealing tampon taxes could reduce an unequal tax burden and improve accessibility to menstrual hygiene products for low-income consumers.