Decomposing Inequality Changes: Allowing for Leisure in the Evaluation of Tax and Transfer Policy Effects

In this paper, we present two alternative methods of accounting for changes in leisure time in decomposing the inequality effects of tax and transfer policy changes. Three components are identified: tax policy, labour supply responses to tax policy changes and other population effects. The methods are used to decompose inequality changes in Australia between 2001 and 2006. Inequality is first defined in non‐welfarist terms as a function of disposable income: the independent judge places no value on leisure. Then, this is modified to allow for evaluations using a weighted geometric mean of disposable income and leisure. This is seen to modify the evaluation of changes in important ways. The results are found to differ from those obtained using a ‘welfarist’ evaluation in terms of money metric utility, where separate labour supply effects cannot be isolated.     

Tax without Design: Recent Developments in UK Tax Policy

This paper considers the development of tax policy in the UK over the last decade or so and assesses policy change against a low bar – consistency and coherence. While this government has followed some consistent policies – notably, in some aspects of corporation tax and in increasing the income tax personal allowance – there are few signs of a wider coherent strategy. The same has been true of other recent governments. Many aspects of the system have become more complex. There have been numerous policy reversals. And few of those aspects of the system in most need of reform have been tackled. The need for reform, and a clear strategy for reform, remain as pressing as ever.     

人力资本与政府财税政策选择

随着知识经济时代的到来，人力资本在经济发展中起着越来越重要的作用，对人力资本的研究也日益引起人们的重视。由于政府政策与人力资本有着密切的联系，因此我们必须采取相应的财税政策，以便更好地发挥人力资本在经济发展中的作用。     

人力资本、社会保障与中国居民收入不平等——基于个体相对剥夺视角

本文通过Kakwani个体相对剥夺指数测度中国城乡居民的收入不平等程度,并分析了人力资本和社会保障对居民个体收入不平等的影响机制及其城乡差异。研究发现:人力资本积累和社会保障制度能够有效抑制居民收入不平等程度的恶化,人力资本和社会保障主要通过收入增长效应和收入差距减缓效应来降低居民收入不平等程度,且稳健性检验结果依然显著;城乡之间不同收入人群在人力资本积累和社会保障再分配上存在群体差异性和阶层分化,导致城乡居民收入不平等的异质性。加强人力资本要素集聚和提高生产效率,构建城乡一体化的社会保障体系,遏制城乡居民多维贫困的代际传递,对于降低城乡居民收入不平等尤为关键。     

Tax Amnesties and Income Tax Compliance: The Case of Spain

The aim of this paper is to evaluate the long‐term impact on Spanish individual income tax (IRPF) compliance of the amnesty measures granted in 1991 within the framework of the 1988–91 income tax reform programme. To that end, we combine time‐series techniques with outlier detection methods and the Bai and Perron (1998) test for the endogenous estimation of structural breaks. On the basis of the analysis of the monthly IRPF tax collection series from 1979 to 1998, we find that the amnesty had no effect on tax collection in either the short or the long term. By contrast, we find evidence of the permanent positive impact caused by the legislative and administrative measures linked to the IRPF reform process begun in 1988.     

Removing Homeownership Bias in Taxation: The Distributional Effects of Including Net Imputed Rent in Taxable Income

The income tax systems of most countries entail a favourable treatment of homeownership, compared to rental‐occupied housing. Such ‘homeownership bias’ and its consequences for a wide range of economic outcomes have long been recognised in the economic literature. Although a removal of the homeownership bias is generally advocated on efficiency grounds, its distributional implications are often neglected, especially in a cross‐country perspective. In this paper, we aim to fill this gap by investigating the first‐order effects, in terms of distribution of income and work incentives, of removing the income tax provisions favouring homeownership. We consider six European countries – Belgium, Germany, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands and the UK – that exhibit important variation in terms of income tax treatment of homeowners. Using the multi‐country tax benefit model EUROMOD, we analyse the distributional consequences of including net imputed rent in the taxable income definition that applies in each country, together with the removal of existing special tax treatments of incomes or expenses related to the main residence; thus, we provide a measure of the homeownership bias. We implement three tax policy scenarios. In the first, imputed rent is included in the taxable income of homeowners, while at the same time existing mortgage interest tax relief schemes and taxation of cadastral incomes are abolished. In the two further revenue‐neutral scenarios, the additional tax revenue raised through the taxation of imputed rent is redistributed to taxpayers, through either a tax rate reduction or a tax exemption increase. The results show how including net imputed rent in the tax base might affect inequality in each of the countries considered. Housing taxation appears to be a promising avenue for raising additional revenues, or lightening taxation of labour, with no inequality‐increasing side effects.     

Tax Deferral and Mutual Fund Inflows: Evidence from a Quasi‐Natural Experiment

We propose a new method to identify the impact of a change in the tax burden on mutual fund inflows. We use quasi‐experimental data from Italy where, starting from July 2011, the tax regime for domestic mutual funds was changed from an accruals basis to a realisation basis, while the taxation of foreign funds remained on a realisation basis. We find that the reform has had a positive effect on net inflows of Italian funds (the treated group) with respect to foreign funds (the control group). The effect is both economically and statistically significant. Moreover, there is no evidence that the increase in the demand for Italian funds came at the expense of foreign funds.     

The Effective Tax Burden of Companies and of Highly Skilled Manpower: Tax Policy Strategies in a Globalised Economy*

Company taxes and taxes on highly skilled labour both influence the attractiveness of a particular region as a location for investment. We measure the effective tax burden on capital investment and on highly qualified labour in 33 locations across Europe and the United States. We then correlate both types of tax burden in order to study the different tax policy strategies applied in different countries. We find that effective tax rates on companies and on highly skilled employees are closely correlated for a number of countries. Ireland and most new EU Member States impose relatively lower taxes on capital investment than on highly skilled manpower. Conversely, in the US, companies are taxed heavily but the effective tax rate on highly skilled employees is moderate.     

国际税收竞争、资本管制与企业所得税负担调整

在经济全球化的背景下,为争夺国际资本,各国都实行了相当优惠的公司所得税政策。但是,减税等国际税收竞争措施的作用是不确定的,一国应采取的国际税收竞争战略与其国家规模、资本管制政策等因素密切相关。面对近年来引进外国直接投资(FDI)增速放缓和逐步放松资本管制的大背景,我国必须抓住内外资企业所得税制度合并的有利时机,合理调整我国企业所得税负担。     

企业所得税超额负担归宿的一般均衡分析

征收企业所得税使得两部门资本要素的边际生产率不同,扭曲了资本市场的资源配置,造成了经济体的实际收入损失(即超额负担)。该实际收入损失相应地降低了社会需求,社会需求又影响要素相对价格,最终影响企业所得税超额负担的归宿。研究表明,劳动要素承担了企业所得税所带来的大部分超额负担。     

营业税改征增值税的税率评估——基于可计算一般均衡模型的研究

营业税改征增值税是完善我国税制的一个重要举措,确定各个产业部门改征增值税后的税率是其中一个关键的环节。运用可计算一般均衡模型可以评估营业税改征增值税之后不同税率的选择对宏观经济和产业结构的影响。政策模拟的结果显示,目前正在实施的营业税改征增值税的试点方案权衡了对财政收入和经济增长以及经济结构的影响,是对经济运行影响较小的稳健选择。     

Educational inequality: the widening socio‐economic gap

In this paper, we consider research on links between higher education and family background, focusing particularly on the experiences of two cohorts of individuals born in 1958 and 1970. The findings point to a rise in educational inequality during the period relevant to these two cohorts. Specifically, links between educational achievement and parental income / social class strengthened during this period. Furthermore, a person's actual (measured) ability became a poorer predictor of whether they would get a degree than was previously the case. The expansion of higher education in the UK during this period appears to have disproportionately benefited children from richer families rather than the most able. Furthermore, the labour market success or failure of individuals became more closely connected to their parents' income, revealing a fall in the extent of intergenerational mobility over time.     

Anticipating Tax Changes: Evidence from the Finnish Corporate Income Tax Reform of 2005*

Using register‐based panel data covering all Finnish firms from 1999 to 2004, we examine how corporations anticipated the 2005 dividend tax increase via changes in their dividend and investment policies. The Finnish capital and corporate income tax reform of 2005 creates a useful opportunity to measure this behaviour, since it involves exogenous variation in the tax treatment of different types of firms. The estimation results reveal that those firms that anticipated a dividend tax hike increased their dividend payouts in a statistically significant way. This increase was not accompanied by a reduction in investment activities, but rather was associated with increased indebtedness in non‐listed firms. The results also suggest that the timing of dividend distributions probably offsets much of the potential for increased dividend tax revenue following the reform.     

上海金融人才环境建设的个人所得税政策选择

本文运用所得税和最优个人所得税相关理论,从所得税对金融行业劳动供给的影响出发,结合全球金融中心指数（GFCI）排名权重指标,对世界各主要金融中心在金融人才环境建设方面的个人所得税政策进行比较研究,揭示了对于上海建立国际金融中心个人所得税政策环境的启示。通过分析我国目前个人所得税制与上海金融人才环境建设之间存在的矛盾,提出建立适合我国国情和上海国际金融中心发展模式的我国个人所得税税收管辖权与政策安排。     

Nash Equilibrium Dynamics of Environmental and Human Capital

This paper explores the Nash equilibrium dynamics of environmental and human capital in an overlapping generations model. Environmental capital is degraded by consumption but can be improved by the voluntary provision of environmental goods. Human capital is formed by a child's learning effort together with his parent's human capital and environmental capital. We show that the laissez faire economy will be either stagnant, growing, or collapsing in the long-run, depending on the returns to scale of the learning technology with respect to the two kinds of capital, the initial state of the economy, and the relative price of the environmental and consumption goods. We also examine the role of the consumption tax policy of both the short-lived and long-lived government for correcting environmental externalities.     

企业所得税优惠政策研究

本文从免税收入、免征减征企业所得税和降低税率三个方面,对国债利息收入、权益性投资收益、非营利组织收入、农林牧渔业项目所得、国家重点扶持的公共基础设施项目投资经营所得、环境保护节能节水项目所得、技术转让所得以及小型微利企业、高新技术企业的企业所得税优惠政策进行了分析,提出了若干实施和完善企业所得税优惠政策的建议。     

健康人力资本对农民农业收入增长的影响研究

基于中国健康与营养调查（CHNS）面板数据,采用Hausman—Taylor模型,本文估计了中国农村地区农民的营养与健康状况对农业收入的影响。研究表明,更高的身高可以增加农民的农业收入,并且男性身高回报要高于女性。身体质量指数（BMI）对女性农业收入的提高有显著性影响,但对男性的影响不显著且方向为负。热量摄入与农业收入之间显著相关,更高的热量摄入是农业收入增长的决定因素之一。本文的研究结果为健康人力资本在农民增收中的重要作用提供了经验证据。     

汇率市场化、宏观审慎管理与跨境资本流动:基于动态随机一般均衡分析

跨境资本流出会对本国经济带来紧缩效应,且随着资本账户开放程度的增加,不利影响会越来越大,社会福利损失也会增大;汇率市场化能够明显降低资本流动冲击引起的经济波动,带来较小的社会福利损失;宏观审慎政策可以起到逆周期"以丰补歉"的作用,降低经济受到资本流动冲击的影响,以防止系统性金融风险的发生,在维护金融稳定的同时保证经济平稳增长,减少社会福利损失。     

Attitudes towards Tax Levels: A Multi‐Tax Comparison*

We analyse Swedes' opinions about the levels of 11 different taxes to see which taxes people are most averse to and why. The most unpopular tax is the real estate tax, while the corporate tax is the least unpopular. We find a strong self‐interest effect in tax attitudes and that knowledge and education increase support for corrective taxes.     

中美员工股票期权个人所得税政策比较

员工股票期权是激励员工为公司长期发展而努力工作的一种有效的薪酬制度。为了进一步促进和规范员工股票期权制在我国的推广,必须设计一套完整可行的税收政策。