Toward A Second-Generation Theory of Fiscal Federalism

Drawing on a wide range of literature and ideas, a new “second-generation theory of fiscal federalism” is emerging that provides new insights into the structure and working of federal systems. After a restatement and review of the first-generation theory, this paper surveys this new body of work and offers some thoughts on the ways in which it is extending our understanding of fiscal federalism and on its implications for the design of fiscal institutions.JEL Code: H77, H11     

Environmental Policy,Efficient Taxation and Unemployment

In this paper, I consider environmental policy as part of a mixed tax problem with a general income tax and linear commodity taxes. I assume that the wage rate is determined by bargaining between unions and firms. The results show that the change in the number of employed persons, following a change in the use of a tax instrument, affects the optimal tax structure via two channels; (i) it makes the tax revenues available for public expenditures more or less costly to collect, and (ii) it affects the aggregate demand for the good that causes the environmental damage. This means that the use of taxation to counteract the labor market imperfection is not easily separated from the environmental aspects of tax policy.JEL Code: D62, H21, J60     

Fiscal Externalities and Efficient Transfers in a Federation

This paper investigates properties of the second best allocation in a fiscal federal system in which both federal tax and intergovernmental grants are involved and the taxation is distortionary. Also, optimal federal grants and tax policies in a decentralized fiscal system are examined. Our major findings are: (i) the second best does not require the equalization of marginal cost of public funds across regions in a conventional form; (ii) matching grants based on either the local tax rates or tax revenues should be introduced to internalize the tax externality; and (iii) once lump-sum and matching grants are optimized, federal tax policy becomes redundant so the optimal fiscal gap is indeterminate.     

A Second-Best Theory of Local Government Policy

This paper provides a model where a large number of small jurisdictions compete for mobile firms and households by supplying local public goods and factors. Jurisdictions only have an incomplete set of tax instruments at their disposal to achieve an efficient allocation. We derive second-best behavioral rules for local governments and extend optimal taxation results to the local level. Local governments distort locational decisions of mobile firms and households by taxing them above marginal congestion costs so as to balance relative locational distortions between taxes. The analysis also reveals that there is a systematic difference between the provision of local public goods and factors. While local public goods are provided according to the Samuelson rule in most situations considered, local public factors are undersupplied relative to this rule.     

Network Externalities and Indirect Tax Preferences for Electronic Commerce

Although most arguments supporting preferential tax treatment of electronic commerce are suspect, the existence of network externalities provides one potentially defensible rationale. This paper considers (1) direct network externalities, which arise in communications networks like the Internet, (2) indirect network externalities, which arise in computer hardware/software systems in imperfectly competitive markets, and (3) learning network externalities, which arise when existing network participants assist new users. It concludes the case for preferential treatment is weak, and that proposed blanket sales tax exemptions of remote (or all) e-commerce are especially inappropriate. Finally, the paper comments briefly on US sales tax reform efforts.     

Fiscal severity and the choice of budget gap closing strategies

The great recession of 2008 forced US local governments to pursue a series of measures to maintain a balanced budget. The authors investigated local governments’ response to the great recession with a focus on Florida, where a crash in the housing market led to a severe erosion of the property tax base. Following the classic cutback management theory, the authors examine how the severity of fiscal stress affected the choice of budget-balancing strategies by Florida’s local governments. The severity of fiscal stress was found to affect not only the number of budget gap closing strategies but also the pattern of adoption of these strategies consistent with the administrative response model.     

多级政府间事权划分与财政支出职能结构的国际比较分析

政治、经济体制及文化传统等方面的差异，造成了美国、加拿大、英国、日本四个主要西方发达国家多级政府间事权划分与各级财政以出职能结构方面的明显区别。透过各国的具体情况，我们可以发现一些建设财政联邦体制应遵循的基本经验。     

打破职责同构：中国政府间纵向关系重塑的路径选择

职责同构是维护中央权威、强化中央对地方控制的产物,同时也是计划经济体制下政府管理体制的遗留,根本上体现的是中国中央集权的传统思想。是各级政府和各部门间协调困难、影响政策推行、机构膨胀和行政成本过大等一系列问题的重要体制性原因。只有打破职责同构：在科学配置政府纵向间职能的基础上,实现职权的法定化,进而推行地区行政区划改革,以全面推动政府效能的提高和服务型政府的建设。     

Taxation of Interest Income

Why is interest income taxed so much more heavily than other forms of capital income? This differential tax treatment has generated substantial tax arbitrage, resulting in lower tax revenue, efficiency costs, and apparently net gains to rich borrowers and net losses to poor lenders, together suggesting that this tax treatment makes no sense on welfare grounds. In examining this argument more formally, this paper reveals two omitted considerations that can help explain the existing tax treatment. First, the forecasted increase in the market interest rate results in a redistribution from rich borrowers to poor lenders. Yet this redistribution comes at no marginal efficiency cost, starting from a situation with no distortions to portfolio choice, so at the margin dominates further redistribution through the income tax. In addition, information about an individual's portfolio choice reveals information about her earnings ability, even controlling for observed labor income, if those who are more able tend to be less risk averse. By making use of this extra information about earnings ability, the tax system can be better tailored to redistribute from able to less able, for any given efficiency cost.     

Vertical Inequity in Property Taxation: A Neighborhood Based Analysis

This paper applies a model to test for vertical inequity in property taxes using a set of residential sales from Bloomington, Indiana. The initial purpose is to compare results with those using the presently accepted regression approach as applied by Smith, B. C. (2000). (See Journal of Real Estate Research 19(3), 321–344, to the same data.) The new outcomes demonstrate there can be significant inequity in a jurisdiction that remains hidden under previous testing methods. Also, the new procedure generates multipliers to adjust for identified inequities. Findings imply that tests for value-related inequity in property tax assessment should be conducted using multiple spatial scales.     

财政纵向失衡、要素价格扭曲与绿色全要素生产率 ——来自266个地级市的证据

从理论层面系统地诠释了财政纵向失衡对绿色全要素生产率的作用机理,然后利用2004-2016年266个地级市的面板数据,采用两阶段最小二乘法考察了财政纵向失衡对中国绿色全要素生产率损失的影响机制.研究发现:财政纵向失衡显著抑制了我国城市绿色全要素生产率水平;中间机制分析表明,资本价格扭曲和劳动力价格扭曲是财政纵向失衡阻碍绿色全要素生产率水平提高的主要中介变量;财政纵向失衡对绿色全要素生产率水平的抑制作用存在着地区和时间差异.     

Complementary currencies: what role should they be playing in local and regional government?

The current climate of fiscal austerity has seen a resurgence in ‘complementary currencies’ as local and regional governments look for ways to use under-utilized assets, maintain employment and avoid local economic decline. The authors explore how local and regional governments can facilitate complementary currencies to reduce the impact of external economic shocks and enable their economies to continue to function in the face of austerity. They recommend that localities consider participating in existing complementary currency ‘circles’.     

论房地产市场调控中的中央与地方政府的博弈

针对中国房地产市场异常情况,政府出台一系列措施进行调控,由于中央与地方利益的博弈,政策执行效果却不尽如人意,应在中央政策在地方没有得到有效的贯彻落实。通过考量房地产市场调控中中央与地方政府利益的对立与统一基础上,求得二者之间博弈的均衡解。     

Optimal Income Taxation and the Ability Distribution: Implications for Migration Equilibria

As recently argued by Diamond (1998), one of the key factors explaining the progressivity of an optimal non-linear income tax is the distribution of productivity among workers. Migration is one source of changes in the productivity distribution. How changes in the populations ability distribution affect optimal income tax schedules has received little attention. Changing the distribution generally affects both the objective function and the government budget constraint. We first consider the comparative statics of the fraction of highly-skilled workers with maximin and maximax welfare functions (so that only the second effect is present) and a quasi-linear utility function. We also present some results for a utilitarian social welfare function.We then study the interaction between mobility and redistributive taxation. We consider mobility by either the skilled or unskilled population under majority voting where governments take the population as fixed. If individuals choose to relocate independently, having identical ability distributions is always a stable equilibrium when the unskilled are the mobile group. However, this is not always the case when the skilled are mobile. If groups of individuals can choose where to locate, having identical ability distributions across regions is only an equilibrium when the mobile type has an overall majority.     

Complexity and Progressivity in Income Tax Design: Deductions for Work-Related Expenses

We analyze optimal income taxes with deductions for work-related or consumptive goods. We consider two cases. In the first case (called a complex tax system) the tax authorities can exactly distinguish between consumptive and work-related expenditures. In the second case (called a simple tax system) this distinction is not exact. Assuming additively separable utility functions, we show that work-related expenditures should be fully deductible in the first case while deduction rates should be less than 100 percent in the second case. Under further simplifying assumptions, we also show that the simple system can be characterized by higher tax burdens on low income earners and less redistribution.     

Electoral and Partisan Cycles in Fiscal Policy: An Examination of Canadian Provinces

This paper examines the fiscal policy choices of Canadian provincial governments in the context of partisan and opportunistic cycles. We identify an electoral cycle in which the predilection of provincial governments of all political stripes to increase taxes is temporarily halted in election years. Opportunistic responses in spending are also present. Spending in highly visible areas (schools, roads and hockey rinks) tends to increase in election years. Partisan responses are largely absent from revenues but appear more frequently in program spending choices. Thus, Canadian political parties tend to favour differentiating amongst themselves via their spending, as opposed to their revenue, choices.     

Optimal Taxation: Merging Micro and Macro Approaches

This paper argues that the large body of research that follows Mirrlees approach to optimal taxation has been developing in two directions, referred to as the micro and macro literatures. We review the two literatures and argue that both deliver important insights that are often complementary to each other. We argue that merging the micro and macro approaches can prove beneficial to our understanding of the nature of efficient redistribution and social insurance and can deliver implementable policy recommendations.     

论税收立法权纵向划分的基本思路

目前我国税收立法权纵向划分存在着缺乏稳定的规则、行政性特征明显、税收立法权过度集中于中央、地方隐性税收立法严重等突出问题.我国税收立法权纵向划分改革的基本思路是:在宪政的基础上通过法律的方式建立适合我国国情的分税制公共财政体制;在此框架下结合分税制其他配套制度的完善将税收立法权总体上集中于中央;赋予地方必要的税收立法权,并对其进行制约与监督.     

Compliance costs for personal income tax in a transition country: the case of Slovenia

The evaluation of taxpayers' compliance costs has grown in significance within tax system research over the last 15 years. In 2001, two surveys of VAT and personal income taxpayers were conducted in Slovenia to evaluate compliance costs for the 2000 fiscal year. This paper presents the results of research into compliance costs for personal income tax in Slovenia. The results show that compliance costs for personal income tax are relatively low, primarily because most taxpayers consider filing their tax declaration to be a simple procedure, which means that consultancy costs are low.     

Fiscal institutions and the funding of US state and local pension plans

This paper investigates the relationship between the funded ratio of US public pension plans and several fiscal institutions adopted by state governments. The author analysed a large data set from 1997 to 2012, and found that states with stricter balanced budget requirements and debt limits had a lower pension funded ratio, whereas states with tax and spending limits in place had a higher funded ratio. The findings contribute to the current debate on public sector pension reforms in the US and internationally.