An exploratory study of the impact of tax freedom on geographic living-cost differentials

In the United States, there exist enormous geographic differentials in the cost of living. A sound, basic understanding of factors that influence such geographic living-cost differentials is important to help formulate useful policies to address various contemporary economic and social problems such as public-school funding across counties. In this exploratory study of the effects of tax freedom on geographic living-cost differentials, the following hypothesis is investigated using panel data for the period 2009 through 2020. The higher the average overall freedom from taxation in a state in the forms of personal income taxation, property taxation, and sales taxation, the lower the overall cost of living in the state. In this exploratory study, strong empirical support is obtained for this heretofore effectively overlooked hypothesis.     

The effect of housing and stock market wealth on consumption in emerging and developed countries

This study examines the long- and short-run relationship between private consumption, housing wealth, stock market wealth and income. In order to asses this relationship empirically, we use pooled mean group estimators of dynamic heterogeneous panel data on a sample of 30 developed and emerging economies. The sample countries are segmented into three separate panels: a developed bank-based panel, a developed market-based panel, and an emerging bank-based panel. Empirical estimates support the existence of long- and short-run stock market wealth effects in both groups of developed countries, with the effect being particularly strong in the developed market-based countries. A moderate long-run housing wealth effect is confirmed only for the developed bank-based countries, while a very strong short-run housing wealth effect is present in the developed market-based countries. As far as the emerging countries are concerned, the evidence is somewhat inconclusive, but it does seem to suggest that both wealth effects are effective in the long run, with housing wealth being more dominant.     

Factor substitution and taxation in a finance constrained economy

In this paper, we examine the effects of constant-rate factor taxation on macroeconomic stability in the Woodford (1986) model. Our focus is on how the degree of factor substitution, as measured by the elasticity of factor substitution (EOS) in production, affects different balanced-budget tax rules. Analytically, we show that indeterminacy can occur under capital income taxation only when the EOS is very low, whereas indeterminacy under labor income taxation is not subject to the EOS restriction. This finding is robust when we tax all of the factor incomes with equal rates. Thus, in terms of macroeconomic stability, taxing capital income is preferred to taxing labor income.     

Property taxation and the demand for housing: An econometric analysis

There is disagreement among economists regarding the effect of a local increase in property taxation on the housing market. In defining the price of housing services studies of the demand for housing have treated the property tax exclusively as an excise tax on housing consumption. Two recent theoretical developments suggest this is a misrepresentation of the tax. One theory holds that the excise effects of property taxation may be shifted backward to the factors employed in the production of housing. The other theory concludes that the property tax is not an excise, but rather serves as an efficient price for local public services. To investigate these hypotheses, data from the Annual Housing Survey were employed to estimate a housing demand model which included the net effective property tax rate among the set of independent variables. In addition to revealing the property tax-housing demand relationship, the model provides more reliable estimates of income and price elasticities by eliminating specification errors found in previous studies. Results indicate that the property tax reduces the housing consumption of central city homeowners, but does not distort the suburban housing market.     

Union wage setting and progressive income taxation with heterogeneous labor: theory and evidence from the German income tax reforms 1986–1990

This paper analyzes the effects of tax shifting in a model with union wage setting and progressive income taxation. The setup allows for different skill levels of the workforce and accounts for the union's distributional objective of income equality. The theoretical predictions of the model are empirically tested with a panel of German micro-data covering the period of the income tax reforms 1986–1990. It is shown that average taxes raise wages, whereas increasing the progressivity of the tax system reduces wages. The effect of progressivity on high-skilled labor tends to be less significant and smaller. Stronger preferences for equality compress the (pre-tax) wage distribution.     

The effects of income taxation on severance pay

Severance pay often results from a bargain between the firm and the employee to avoid or terminate a legal conflict. We theoretically investigate how income taxation affects these negotiations. Using panel data from West Germany and exploiting a change in tax law in 1999, we find that a higher income tax on severance pay reduces the probability of obtaining it and – in some specifications – also lowers its amount. Our results imply overshifting of the increase in the tax burden.     

Taxation for Low Cost Wood Fiber*

Abstract . If forest industry taxation is to be put on a sound economic basis, the Federal Government, the largest land owner, should pay the same taxes as any other landowner, so that the social and economic effects of taxation are realized. Specialists report that the form of the property tax preferred for the taxation of the property of the forest industry, under most circumstances, is land value taxation, not the property tax based on income realized at some point In the future which presumed the continued existence of virgin forests. This paper recognizes that the forest industry now is based on harvests of tree crops and proposes a further development of the land value taxation principle in the form of a forest tax composed of a land value tax combined with a tax on tree growth which increases as growth as a percentage of volume growth decreases with the tree's increasing age.     

TAXATION OF ECONOMIC RENTS

Economic rents have long been identified as an efficient tax base. In addition, the recent literature documents that rent income is highly concentrated and that rents are quickly increasing. Rent taxation thus seems attractive for reasons of both efficiency and equity. Nevertheless, rent taxation remains a marginal topic in research and policy making. In a systematic review of the neoclassical literature on different rent types, we find that some types of rents reflect inefficiencies and should thus be minimized, while others reward investments and should be supported in line with social welfare. What remains for taxation are land rents, one of the few true scarcity rents. Land rents have significant potential to improve the efficiency of the tax system. We then begin to develop a comprehensive theory of land rent taxation by identifying relevant efficiency and equity effects. The interaction of many of these effects remains unexplored, which might explain policymakers' hesitation in using land taxes to date.     

Do Casinos Cause Economic Growth?

A bstract .   Casino gambling is a popular form of entertainment and is purported to have positive effects on host economies. The industry surely affects local labor markets and tax revenues. However, there has been little evidence on the effects of casino gambling on state economic growth. This paper examines that relationship using Granger-causality analysis modified for use with panel data. Our results indicate that there is no Granger-causal relationship between real casino revenues and real per capita income at the state level. The results are based on annual data from 1991 to 2005. These findings contradict an earlier study that found that casino revenues Granger-cause economic growth, using quarterly data from 1991 to 1996. Possible explanations for the differences in short- and long-run effects are discussed.     

Taxes, Federal Grants, Local Public Spending, and Growth

In a dynamic model with both private and local public capital accumulation, this paper examines how federal and local income taxes, local consumption tax, and federal matching grants for local public consumption and local public investment affect the long-run equilibrium (equilibria) of private consumption, private capital accumulation, local public consumption, and local public capital stock.     

促进我国物流产业发展的税收政策研究

指出我国物流业税收领域制度不完善,仍然存在税费界限不清、计税基数不合理、重复纳税等问题。所以必须完善税收政策和法规,对我国物流业税费继续规范,全面发挥保税物流区域功能,统一所得税、调整流转税政策以及对税收管理进行完善等措施,积极促进我国物流业与税收的良性发展。     

Sooner or Later? – Paradoxical Investment Effects of Capital Gains Taxation under Simultaneous Investment and Abandonment Flexibility

This paper analyzes the impact of capital gains taxation on investment timing decisions for risky investment projects with entry and exit flexibility under differential tax rates for ordinary income and capital gains. We investigate whether capital gains taxation influences immediate and delayed investments asymmetrically, given the optimal abandonment decision. If capital gains taxation induces a lock-in effect, this effect is anticipated in the investment timing decision. In contrast to prior research, our numerical simulations show that this lock-in effect of capital gains taxation can induce normal as well as paradoxical effects on investment timing under simultaneous entry and exit flexibility. A paradoxical timing effect, i.e., investment accelerated by capital gains taxation, especially emerges for high liquidation proceeds or, more conservative tax accounting, low interest rates, and low volatilities. In these cases, capital gains taxation reduces the value of the option to invest and hereby increases the propensity to invest immediately. As a second paradoxical tax effect, capital gains taxation may favor delayed real investment over financial investment. Facing these results, tax legislators should not use capital gains taxation as a short-term tax policy instrument to influence investors' timing decisions.     

我国证券市场中的所得税问题研究

欧美和日本等国家的上市公司偏好于债务融资,而我国的上市公司在进行融资决策时普遍采用"轻债务重股权"的方法。本文认为这主要是因为我国的所得税制中存在对股权收益的部分征税、重复征税,对证券的投资收益和转让利得实行差别税收政策,以及存在非债务税收保护措施等,所以必须有针对性地改革现行税制,对股息所得征税遵循"同股同利"的原则,清理不恰当的非债务税收保护措施,减轻对股利的重复课税以及改革证券市场的资本利得税。     

Taxation and Economic Growth

A bstract The effects of vorious tax policies on economic growth are recx amined on the basis of the recently developed endogenous growth therory The assertion of Henry George that the structure of taxation is more important than the level of taxation in explaining economic growth is elaborated and verified Annual data for Taiwan from 1954 to 1986 shows that the aggregate tax rate does not have significant effect on the long run growth rates of private ouptup, consumption and production factor inputs This result is due to the poostivie effect of consumption taxation offsetting the negative effect of factor taxation on economic growth     

Simulating fundamental tax reforms in an aging Japan

This paper studies in a quantitative way the macroeconomic and welfare effects of introducing progressive expenditure taxation, in a situation of the aging of the Japanese population. It undertakes a simulation analysis taking account of the general equilibrium effects of intragenerational inequality, which increases with a transition to an aging society. The simulation results suggest that progressive expenditure taxation has advantages over progressive labor income taxation on the grounds of efficiency and equity. Thus, a shift to progressive expenditure taxation can overcome the large welfare loss that would occur under the current tax system as Japan ages.     

Off the radar: Factors behind the growth of shadow banking in Europe

This paper uses novel data from the European Central Bank and the Eurosystem on non-bank financial intermediation to investigate the potential factors of shadow banking growth for a panel of twenty-four countries in the European Union (EU). We find that the EU shadow banking system is highly procyclical and positively related to increasing demand by long-term institutional investors and to more stringent capital regulation. We show that individual entities in the shadow banking system can act as both complements and substitutes to traditional banking. In addition, we estimate four country-specific models using a Bayesian estimation method. We supplement the panel model estimates, which serve as a priori information, with data from a specific economy. We assert that, although some shadow banking determinants are uniform across countries, other may have heterogeneous effects across countries because of country-specific characteristics.     

生产性公共支出、最优税收与经济增长

本文在严成樑和龚六堂(2009)的基础上将消费性公共支出内生到家庭的效用函数中,在一个DGE框架下求解竞争性均衡问题,以此来考察生产性公共支出和税收对经济增长的影响。结论表明,生产性支出具有正的产出效应;生产性支出对家庭私人消费、公共消费的影响取决于政府设定的平滑税率。根据经验分析可知,生产性支出对经济的促进作用不如人口效应大,其中,基本建设支出并未对经济起到促进作用,可能已凸显出过度投资、重复建设等问题,这一现象在东西部地区更为明显;教育支出的增加促进了经济增长,并且在东中部地区较明显,而在西部地区仍未体现出来。     

Energy intensity and directed fiscal policy

This paper assesses the effects of fiscal policy on economy-wide energy intensity within an endogenous growth framework. To this end, we first develop a two-sector (investment good and consumption good) augmented AK model by integrating the Uzawa model with Rebelo’s AK model, and assume that a non-renewable resource is one of the factors of production. Using this framework, we solve the model for the short and long run, identifying the sufficient parameter conditions that ensure higher energy intensity in the investment goods sector. We then introduce a balanced budget government, whose objective is to decrease the economy-wide energy intensity by levying tax on the energy-intensive investment goods sector and subsidizing the consumption goods sector. Contrary to our expectations, we find that this fiscal policy design increases economy-wide energy intensity as it leads to a decline in real GDP without changing total energy consumption. On the basis of this model, we propose the concept of a ‘directed fiscal policy’, which connotes a reduction of the economy-wide energy intensity by following a heterogeneous taxation policy across sectors.     

Fiscal Sociology: What For?

In discussing the question, Fiscal sociology: What for? we shall first give a short sketch of the history of thought of the field. We will next identify main issues. In discussing the concept of the tax state, we emphasize issues in constitutional public finance. One of the fields in which fiscal sociology has been most important is taxation, and notably income taxation. In citing applications and issues, we identify an entire alphabet of fiscal sociological issues. We conclude by discussing the future of the field in both instruction and research.     

Growth, debt and public infrastructure

This paper presents a closed economy model of endogenous growth driven by capital externalities arising from both private capital and public infrastructure. The model is calibrated to fit data for India, an approximately closed economy. Simulations suggest that fiscal policy certainly matters and the choice of the income taxation rate, the mix of government spending between infrastructure and public consumption goods, and the long-run government debt/GDP ratio can all significantly affect the long-run growth rate. Intertemporal aspects of fiscal policy are also important and the precommitment (time-inconsistent) and non-precommitment policies differ substantially.