MARGINAL COMMODITY TAX REFORMS: A SURVEY

Abstract.  As noted 30 years ago by Martin Feldstein, optimal taxes may be useless for practical purposes and emphasis should instead be placed on the possibility of enhancing welfare by reforming existing tax rates. In this perspective, marginal commodity tax reforms are gaining increasing attention due to political and economic constraints on large reforms of direct (or indirect) taxation. In this paper, we summarize the main features and results of the literature on marginal commodity tax reforms pioneered by Ahmad and Stern, further developed by Yitzhaki and Thirsk and recently reinterpreted by Makdissi and Wodon. We establish new links to other fields of research, namely the literature on the use of equivalence scales and on poverty measurement. We also critically examine some issues associated with the implementation of marginal tax reforms with special reference to the calculation of welfare weights and revenue effects. Finally, we suggest directions for future research on poverty-reducing commodity tax reforms.     

Lowering the Marginal Corporate Tax Rate: Why the Debate?

In an effort to attract new investors and retain existing producers, governments use corporate tax rates as a policy tool for industrial recruitment, resulting in inter‐state tax competition. Foreign direct investment (FDI) growth and GDP growth are the two policy outcomes gauged in inter‐state tax competition. The assumption is that lower corporate taxes lead to increases in FDI, which results in capital formation that generates GDP growth. This 60‐nation panel study tests that assumption through examining economic indicators contingent on taxation, such as FDI and mergers and acquisitions among multinational corporations between 1999 and 2009. The results suggest that reduced corporate tax rates can increase FDI but decrease annual GDP growth. The main policy implication is that tax competition may attract investment, but may not promote overall economic growth, offering support for value‐extraction theories.     

Environmental taxes,reforms and economic growth: an empirical analysis of panel data

This paper explores the relationship between environmentally related taxes and the economic growth rate. The analysis also investigates whether this relationship differs between countries that have implemented environmental tax reforms (ETRs) and those that have not. Using panel data from 31 OECD countries over the period 1994–2013, the paper finds that when we allow environmentally related tax revenues to interact with an initial level of real GDP per capita, the overall revenues of these taxes are negatively associated with the economic growth rate in the short and long term. Furthermore, we show that the higher the initial level of GDP per capita, the more environmentally related tax revenues can promote the economic growth rate. The analysis also reveals that the relationship between environmentally related tax revenues and economic growth varies between countries that have a mechanism to redistribute environmentally related tax revenues and those that do not.     

Analyzing female labor supply — Evidence from a Dutch tax reform

Among OECD countries, the Netherlands has an average female labor force participation, but by far the highest rate of part-time work. This paper investigates the extent to which married women respond to financial incentives. We exploit exogenous variation caused by a substantial Dutch tax reform in 2001. Our main conclusion is that the positive significant effect of the tax reform on labor force participation dominates the negative insignificant effect on working hours. The latter contradicts the common empirical finding of positive wage elasticities. Our preferred explanation is that women respond more to changes in tax allowances than to changes in marginal tax rates.     

The economic impact of migration: productivity analysis for Spain and the UK

Over the past 20?years labour has become increasingly mobile and whilst employment and earnings effects in host countries have been extensively analysed, the implications for firm and industry performance have received far less attention. This paper explores the direct economic consequences of immigration on host nations?? productivity performance at a sectoral level in two very different European countries, Spain and the UK. Whilst the UK has traditionally seen substantial immigration, for Spain the phenomenon is much more recent. Our findings from a growth accounting analysis show that migration has made a negative contribution to labour productivity growth in Spain and a negative but negligible contribution in the UK. This difference is driven by a positive impact from migrant labour quality in the UK. This finding broadly holds across all sectors, but we note considerable variation in magnitudes. Labour productivity growth has a neutral contribution from migrant labour in construction and personal services in the UK, whilst in every case in Spain the effect is negative, most strongly in agriculture. Using an econometric approach to production function estimation we observe a positive long term effect on total factor productivity from migrant workers in the UK and a negative effect in Spain. Our findings suggest that either the UK is better at assimilating migrants or is more selective in terms of who is permitted to migrate.     

Fiscal Policy and Economic Growth

This paper surveys the literature on fiscal policy and economic growth. We present a unifying framework for the analysis of long run growth implications of government expenditures and revenues. We find that several tax rates and expenditure categories exhibit a direct impact on the growth rate of the economy. In a creative synthesis we have assigned the relevant literature to the twelve introduced policy variables. Due to the equivalence of some policy variables we are left with six degrees of freedom, where we need four to internalize the model's intrinsic externalities, leaving two instruments to conduct short run fiscal policy.     

出口退税对纺织品出口的经济效应分析——以江苏省为例

出口退税为我国一项重要的促进贸易发展的政策。江苏省是纺织品出口大省,但近年随着世界经济形势的变化,国际贸易保护主义抬头,中美贸易摩擦加剧,出口退税政策在促进纺织品出口方面变得更加重要。论文从纺织品出口的需求、供给关系和贸易小国出口退税政策的福利效应两个方面探讨了江苏省纺织品出口退税的经济效应,主要体现为静态效应和动态效应。结果显示,出口退税政策对促进纺织品出口发挥了重要作用,相关部门应积极推进实施此政策。     

税收累进性测度的改进：方法、比较和应用

提出判断税收累进性的边际效应方法：当总收入基尼系数的税收边际效应大于0时,该税收具有累进性特征;并将税收边际效应作为测度指数。边际效应指数与K指数具有完全相同的符号,不同税种具有可加性,它比K指数更为稳健,且赋予了税收累进性新的经济含义：税收对总收入基尼系数贡献率大于平均税率。同时还着重讨论几种测度税收累进性指数的关系,对各种测度指数进行了实证,发现S指数存在一定程度的缺陷。     

Community Energy Taxation to Limit CO2 and Price Distortions: Spain as a Pilot Study

Within the framework of the European Community's policy response to the risks of global climate change, the Commission is analyzing the options for using a mixed energy and CO2 tax as one policy instrument in a package of measures. The taxes planned to cut CO2 emissions are designed as a production tax on energy products, based on their fuel content or, in the case of a CO2 tax, on the CO2 content. Although the precise tax rate has not yet been confirmed, that of US$10 per barrel seems to be the most probable. Against this background, the aim of the study is to investigate, on the basis of the input–output model, the effects of both a general energy and a CO2 tax on the producer prices of the different economic sectors in Spain as a case-study. Additionally, the paper attempts to shed some light on other related issues, such as the evaluation of the effects of energy and CO2 taxes on domestic goods' competitiveness with respect to other non-Community countries.     

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     

A Note on the Determinants of Public Dissatisfaction with Government: Economic and Political Factors Affecting the Public's Attitude toward Government

This study empirically identifies both the economic and political determinants of the public's dissatisfaction with government in the United States. Using annual survey data on the public's dissatisfaction with government obtained for the years 1965–1996, it is found that the Vietnam War, Watergate, oil price shocks and higher federal marginal income tax rates resulted in elevated levels of the public's dissatisfaction with government, whereas increases in housing prices and a rising Dow Jones industrial average reduced the public's dissatisfaction with the government.     

不同资本账户开放程度下的中国财政货币政策效果分析

研究目标：分析不同资本账户开放程度下的中国财政货币政策效果及福利效应。研究方法：将内生化的政府支出（税收）政策以及包含汇率的价格（数量）型为主的混合货币政策一并纳入一个小型开放的DSGE模型。研究发现：随着资本账户的逐步放开,财政政策方面,减税政策刺激经济增长和促进就业的效果越来越好,政府支出政策刺激经济增长和促进就业的效果越来越差;货币政策方面,国内货币政策的调控效果及利率上升的跨期替代效应减弱。从社会福利损失的角度分析表明：无论是与内生化的政府支出（税收）政策组合还是与财政赤字政策组合,价格型为主的混合货币政策始终优于数量型为主的混合货币政策。研究创新：考察在高、中和低三种资本账户开放背景下中国不同财政货币政策组合的相互作用和经济效应。研究价值：为资本账户放开过程中合理地使用财政货币政策组合提供理论参考。     

经济发展进程中的基础设施投资结构变迁

本文构建了经济发展进程与基础设施投资结构变迁的理论模型,并采用1998～2013年间省际面板数据对理论模型进行了实证检验。研究表明：在经济增长水平较低时,一般性基础设施投资对经济增长激励效应更强,但对自主创新演变影响较弱;在经济增长水平较高时,科技型基础设施投资对经济增长和自主创新激励效应均强于一般性基础设施投资。因此,政府在制定基础设施投资结构变迁政策时需同时兼顾自主创新目标和经济增长目标,根据两类基础设施投资边际效应的相对大小恰当地实施基础设施投资结构变迁,以最大限度地释放经济增长潜力。     

Endogenous Growth: Estimating the Romer Model for the US and Germany*

By contrasting endogenous growth models with facts, one is frequently confronted with the prediction that levels of economic variables, such as R&D expenditures, imply lasting effects on the growth rate of an economy. As stylized facts show, the research intensity in most advanced countries has dramatically increased, mostly more than the GDP. Yet, the growth rates have roughly remained constant or even declined. In this paper we modify the Romer endogenous growth model and test our variant of the model using time series data. We estimate the market version both for the US and Germany for the time period January 1962 to April 1996. Our results demonstrate that the model is compatible with the time series for aggregate data in those countries. All parameters fall into a reasonable range.     

浅议我国现行个人所得税制改革

个人所得税作为调节居民收入分配的一个重要税种,在我国经济生活中起着至关重要的作用。个税调整直接关系百姓钱袋子,在通胀形势下成为关注热点。随着我国经济的增长,居民可支配收入也在逐年增多,但是作为调节贫富收入差距的"个人所得税"这一税收杠杆却滞后于我们经济的变化,这些问题不仅严重影响了税收调节经济的功能,而且对社会稳定也极为不利。本文在阐明了我国个人所得税制改革中存在的相关问题后,有针对性的提出了相关学者的政策建议。     

Forecast Summary

A pause in world activity held back UK industry in the first quarter of the year and, even though we expect faster growth from now on, we forecast total output growth of only 2 per cent this year. But next year a stronger world economy and pre-election tax cuts lift growth to 3 1/4per cent. Lower oil prices and falling interest rates help keep inflation at its current level both this year and, as long as wages respond, next. In the medium term we expect the growth rate to fall back but, assuming that a fairly tight fiscal policy is pursued by whichever government is in power, we predict that inflation stays below 3 per cent     

Derivatives market and economic growth nexus: Policy implications for emerging markets

The derivatives market plays a crucial role in an economy. However, its link to economic growth and macroeconomic factors seem to be insufficiently covered in academic research despite the publication of many empirical studies on the causality of finance and growth. Recently, many emerging markets, such as Vietnam, have decided to establish a derivatives markets for risk management to ensure stability in the economy. This paper investigates the dynamic relationship among these key variables using up-to-date panel data on 17 countries, for which required data are available until 2017. This study yields various findings. First, bidirectional Granger causality between derivatives markets and economic growth exists internationally. Second, using panel vector autoregression, impulse-response functions, variance decomposition techniques as well as panel econometrics estimations, we find that trade openness and government spending have more effects on the derivatives market than economic growth and inflation. Third, we document that the derivatives market has a more integrated direct relationship with economic growth and macroeconomic factors in high-income countries than their upper-middle-income counterparts. These new findings are essential for consideration by policy makers in emerging markets in relation to the development of their derivatives markets.     

完善我国研发支出的财税政策

随着经济发展,研发创新活动已经成为各国竞争的重要手段之一。科技创新可以优化一个国家的资源配置,提高国家的综合竞争力。各国政府为了研发创新活动的开展,都在积极探索并制定研发创新的财税政策。本文分析了我国目前研发支出财税政策存在的不足之处,如财税政策的受益范围窄且力度小、财税支持方式不合理及法律法规不健全等问题。接着介绍国外激励研发创新的财税政策,总结出对我国财税政策的启示。最后从扩大财税政策激励范围、丰富财税政策激励方式以及完善我国财税的法律法规等方面提出优化我国研发支出财税政策的建议。     

Public spending and optimal taxes without commitment

We consider a representative agent, infinite-horizon economy where production requires private and public capital. The supply of public capital is financed through distortionary taxation. The optimal (second best) tax policy of a benevolent government is time inconsistent. We therefore introduce explicitly the constraint that at no point in time the revision of the original tax plan is desirable. We completely characterize the (third best) tax plan that satisfies this constraint, and estimate the difference in tax rate between the second and third best policy for a wide range of parameters. For some of these the difference between the second and third best tax rates is large, and so are the associated rates of economic growth.