Do income tax breaks for the elderly affect economic growth?

Income tax breaks for elderly taxpayers are sizable, widespread, and potentially affect growth through migration and other behaviors. We provide the first investigation into the growth effects of differential tax policy by age, taking a multi-pronged empirical approach to US state-level data since 1977. Some analyses include panel error-correction models combined with variation in state-level policies over time. Alternative analyses use how changes in federal tax law manifest at the state-level. Results suggest that taxes on lower income taxpayers, of any age, decrease growth the most, while taxing the high income elderly—those targeted recently—has little effect.     

Can Capital Income Taxes Survive? And Should They?

The article surveys some main results in the theory of capitalincome taxation in the open economy; reviews recent trends ininternational taxation and discusses alternative blueprintsfor fundamental capital income tax reform from the perspectiveof an open economy faced with growing mobility of capital incometax bases. (JEL code: H21, H25)     

影响中国税收增长率变动的经济因素分析——基于1978-2006年中国税收收入时间序列数据

近年来,中国税收呈现高增长态势。税收增长率远超经济增长率,税收高速增长以及税收结构不合理在一定程度上抑制了消费增长。然而,影响税收增长率变动的经济因素是多元的,主要受到经济增长水平、价格水平等影响。实证分析表明,经济波动决定税收增长率的变动,经济波动与税收增长率变动存在长期均衡变动关系,价格对税收增长率也有较大影响。     

Numerical simulation on property tax reform: evidence from China

This article analyses the property tax reform in China in a computable general equilibrium model that recognizes the interaction between and among housing markets in different provinces and macroeconomic development. Using real data in 2010, we present the benchmark equilibrium for reference property and income tax rates. Then, we examine different property and income tax policies and make a comparison of their production, consumption, welfare and national income. We find that the implementation of property tax would decrease the house production at the expense of welfare in taxed area. The expansion of the taxed regions may increase the total social welfare and national income. Even though property tax policy may not be able to change the income distribution in China, increasing income tax rate could narrow the income disparity. Finally, this article shows the reliability of the conclusions when sensitivity analysis on optimal condition of equilibrium computation is performed under varied property tax policy.     

The Institutionalist Perspective on Recent Theories of Direct Foreign Investment: A Comment on McClintock

This article holistically addresses the effective (relative) income tax contribution of a given income (or, wealth) group. The widely acclaimed standard in public policy is the absolute benefaction of a given income group in filling up the fiscal coffers. Instead, we focus on the ratio of the average income tax rate of an income group divided by the percentage of national income (or wealth) appropriated by the same income group. In turn, we develop the Fiscal Inequality Coefficient which compares the effective percentage income tax payments of pairs of income (or wealth) groups. Using data for the United States, we concentrate on pairs such as the Bottom 90% versus Top 10%, Bottom 99% versus Top 1%, and Bottom 99.9% versus Top 0.1%. We conclude that policy makers with a strong social conscience should re-evaluate the progressivity of the income tax system and make the richest echelons of the income and wealth distributions pay a fairer and higher tax.     

公共资本、税收与长期经济增长

基于两部门增长模型,通过参数化和数值模拟估算了我国税收政策的宏观经济效应及公共资本拥挤性、资本利用效率和外部性对税收政策效应的影响。研究表明,降低资本所得税更有利于经济增长和福利水平改善;基于福利最大化视角,应对劳动进行补贴,对资本减税;公共资本拥挤性强化了资本所得税的减税效应,但不利于福利水平改善,对劳动所得税减税效应影响不大;公共部门资本生产效率和公共资本外部性对减税政策效应具有非对称性影响。     

碳税对经济增长、能源消费与收入分配的影响分析

本文利用1995—2005年我国GDP、能源消费和资源税样本数据,通过构建基于面板数据的计量模型,分析了征收碳税对我国28个省、直辖市和自治区的经济增长、能源消费与收入分配的影响。结果表明:征收碳税能够提高我国大部分地区的经济规模,同时对东部地区的能源消费具有抑制作用,但扩大了大部分地区资本所有者和劳动者的收入分配差距。这说明,现阶段我国应该分地区、分税率进行碳税征收,以使我国大部分地区在保持经济增长和体现社会公平的前提下实现节能减排的目标。     

Why do (some) ordinary Americans support tax cuts for the rich? Evidence from a randomised survey experiment

Why do (some) ordinary citizens support tax cuts for the rich? We test four prominent explanations – unenlightened self-interest, fairness considerations, prospect of upward mobility, and trickle-down beliefs – using a randomised, online information provision experiment, embedded in a representative survey of around 3000 US Americans. The results show that preferences for taxing the rich are fundamentally affected by information that shifts citizens’ core fairness beliefs, as well as information on the past trajectory of top tax rates. In contrast, we find no evidence in support of the unenlightened self-interest or prospect of upward mobility explanations. Overall, our results align with theories of tax policy preferences that emphasise the importance of fairness perceptions and reference points.     

含有负所得税的最优所得税再研究

文章在借鉴已有最优线性和非线性所得税研究成果基础上,结合中国国情提出含有负所得税的最优非线性所得税模型(有缓冲地带),即修正的Mirrlees税收函数,进而得出一些与以往研究不同的结论,从而进一步发展和充实了最优所得税理论。这对于在目前我国日益扩大的收入分配差距尚未根本性扭转的背景下重新审视我国现有的税收政策,通过实施负所得税制度重构收入分配政策具有重要的参考价值和借鉴意义。     

经济全球化下的国际税收竞争与税收优惠

本文从经济全球化入手,论述了经济全球化、税收国际化、国际税收竞争与税收优惠的关系,主张纵向研究国际税收竞争,从国民经济发展的全局出发审视利用税收优惠手段参与国际税收竞争的利与弊.     

内、外资企业所得税合并中的几个理论问题探讨

中国正经历着新一轮的税制改革,而内、外资企业所得税的合并成为人们关注的焦点问题。从纳税人、税率、税前扣除和税收优惠等几个基本理论问题的界定,分析内、外资企业所得税存在的差异以及合并中存在的问题,进而为内、外资企业所得税的合并提供一个理论框架。     

个人所得税税率的国际比较及其对中国的启示——以美英两国为样本

20世纪80年代以来,以“降低税率、减少级距”为主要内容的个人所得税税率改革已是大势所趋,中国目前的个人所得税税率未能很好地起到调节收入的作用,我们可以借鉴美英两国个人所得税税率改革过程的经验,结合中国国情,通过对免征额和初始税率、最高边际税率累进数及管理成本等因素的确定,选择有波动的减速累进路线。     

新个税存在的问题及解决措施

为进一步完善个人所得税税制,2011年新个人所得税（以下简称“新个税”）法案应运而生。对于实行以3500元的免征额为主要改革内容的新个税能否够切实摆脱中国个税陷入的困境,实现缩小贫富差距、社会公平的目标,大多持怀疑的态度。针对这一问题,以新个税为基础,结合国外的主要税制模式,分析中国个税制度仍存在的问题．进而为中国个税今后的改革方向提出几点建议。     

On Teaching a Fractured Macroeconomics

One of the most interesting results in the tax evasion literature is that an increase in the income tax rate would increase tax compliance. Despite its peculiarity, this result has gained acceptance as a cornerstone for further developments of the rational tax evasion model. However, because of the mathematical format by which it is conveyed, this counterintuitive result has remained inaccessible to undergraduate students as well as to noneconomists. The author first introduces the rational tax evasion model in a nonmathematical style that is accessible to any reader. Second, he shows that the behavioral predictions of the rational tax evasion model can easily be obtained using a simple graphical representation of the optimum condition that involves the derivation of a demand curve for tax compliance.     

Fiscal policy under a minimum‐time objective

In an endogenous growth model, we characterize the fiscal policy driven by a minimum‐time objective of economic development. We find that in equilibrium government should levy the highest possible consumption taxes, reduce public expenditures to the lowest possible level, and keep labor income tax rate and capital income tax rate satisfy a substitution relationship at the balanced budget constraint. We also identify the condition under which income tax rate should be set to zero. We further find that the equilibrium fiscal policy is equivalent to the growth‐maximizing fiscal policy, whereas it generally deviates from the welfare‐maximizing fiscal policy. We hence identify a circumstance where setting the policy goal of reaching an economic‐performance target as soon as possible cannot be justified in the sense of maximizing the welfare of households.     

Sharing the Burden? Empirical Evidence on Corporate Tax Incidence

This study investigates the direct incidence of the corporate income tax (CIT) through wage bargaining, using an industry‐region level panel dataset on all corporations in Germany over the period 1998–2006. For the first time we account for employment effects which result from tax‐induced wage changes. Workers share in reductions of the CIT burden; yet, the net effect of wage bargaining on the corporate wage bill, after an exogenous €1 decrease in the CIT burden, is as little as 19–28 cents. This is about half of the effect obtained in prior literature focussing on wages alone.