Tax incidence depends on the relative price elasticities of supply and demand; when demand is inelastic and supply is elastic, the economic burden of a tax falls primarily on consumers as a matter of standard microeconomic theory.
The claim is a fundamental, definitional principle of microeconomic theory regarding tax incidence. Because it is a textbook economic identity following directly from definitions of elasticity and tax burden distribution, no citation of empirical papers is necessary, placing it under common knowledge.