The flypaper theory of tax incidence is a pejorative term used by economists to describe the assumption that the burden of a tax, like a fly on flypaper, sticks wherever it first lands. Economists point out several flaws with the assumption: * it ignores the elasticity of goods; and * it ignores the ability of producers to shift the cost of the tax onto consumers. As another example, suppose a tax is levied on the sellers of a product. The sellers may simply raise the price of the product, thus shifting the burden of the tax onto the buyers of the product.