Environmental taxation and employment

Summary This paper explores how environmental taxes affect employment. It argues that the case for environmental taxes should rest on environmental grounds rather than possibly favorable employment effects. Using pollution taxes to shift the tax burden away from labor is likely to be difficult for economic, social, and political reasons. Moreover, these taxes are likely to raise the overall tax burden-even if the revenues are recycled as lower distortionary taxes. To stimulate employment, governments should rely on alternative instruments targeted at the labor market.     

Uncertainty and Optimally Uniform Commodity Taxes

This paper examines the implications of uncertainty for the structure of optimal commodity taxes in the presence of a linear income tax. Consumers face uncertain income and commit to consumption of some goods before the resolution of uncertainty and to others after. Preferences are separable between labor and consumption goods. We prove that optimal commodity taxes are (i) uniform within the category of noncommitted goods if their subutility is logarithmic; (ii) uniform within the two categories if both subutilities are logarithmic; and (iii) nonzero across categories, with the tax rate on precommitted goods being lower than the tax rate on noncommitted goods.     

CORRUPTION AND THE COMPOSITION OF TAX REVENUE IN MIDDLE EAST AND AFRICAN ECONOMIES1

Regression results from a panel of 53 Middle East and African economies suggest that corruption has a quite large negative and statistically significant impact on tax revenues, mainly reflecting the impact of corruption on tax collections from social security, and taxes on domestic goods and services and international trade transactions. Policy changes to boost tax revenues might usefully focus on changes in direct taxes and efforts to combat corruption in tax collections should focus on indirect taxes.     

Rebalancing in China: A taxation approach

The rebalancing of the Chinese economy is analyzed through a heterogeneous taxation of various types of firms. Based on a two-country dynamic general equilibrium model, the paper applies tax reforms to raise consumption, reduce some firms' overinvestment (overcapacities) and maintain a high level of welfare.To rebalance consumption and investment, taxation may allow reallocating a part of the labor force to firms that are not overinvesting (via business taxes and social security contributions). Moreover, the correction of distortions in production factor costs (capital and labor) is necessary during certain reforms applied in the model; that is, on the one hand, higher credit costs for firms that face soft budget constraints (via financial transactions taxes) and, on the other hand, a catch-up of foreign firms' wages by domestic firms (via social security contributions).These tax reforms bring welfare benefits to households and stabilize the welfare reaction to productivity shocks. Another interesting result is that in this framework, the rebalancing of the domestic demand in China does not require the readjustment of the external financial position. Indeed, the aggregate savings rate remains high and the supply of domestic assets is reduced.Finally, another model proposes a heterogeneous taxation of consumption across home and foreign goods to enhance consumption.     

开征碳税对天然橡胶及其关联行业的影响分析

本文测算了"十一五"期间工业行业研发效率,单位产值的能耗、各种污染物排放量,在此基础上验证碳税对天然橡胶关联行业影响的Porter假说,分析天然橡胶种植和初加工行业的赋税,探讨"双重红利"的存在性。研究表明:天然橡胶关联行业科技创新能力较低,特别是原始性创新,开征碳税难以倒逼企业通过自身创新来形成新的优势;相比合成橡胶行业,橡胶制品业受到的冲击相对较小;天然橡胶种植和初加工行业受税收影响较小,影响正负取决于价格优势与成本劣势孰强。     

Environmental and public finance aspects of the taxation of energy

This paper reviews potential applications of environmental taxesin the energy sector. Theoretical and practical arguments forusing environmental taxes are reviewed, and possible arrangementsoutlined for levying environmental taxes on energy. In contrastto most environmental taxes, taxes on energy have the potentialto raise revenues sufficient to alter the constraints and opportunitiesin fiscal policy. A carbon tax levied at a rate of £200per tonne could raise revenues equivalent to about 11 per centof total UK tax receipts, allowing income tax to be halved,or corporation tax abolished. Inappropriate use of the revenues,or their unnecessary dissipation, can greatly add to the costsof environmental policy. But, environmental taxes are unlikelyreduce the overall excess burden from taxation below the currentlevel, and the case for ecotaxes must thus primarily be madein terms of their environmental benefits.     

Tax reforms and stock return volatility: The case of Japan

Although global financial turmoil in recent years has resulted in renewed interest in taxing financial markets, the existing evidence is inconclusive regarding the effect of stock transaction taxes (STT) on stock return volatility. In this respect, Japan provides an excellent opportunity to address the issue, as the country enacted major tax reforms during the long recession beginning in the early 1990s, not only abolishing STT in 1999, but also reducing the capital gains and dividend taxes in 2003. The present paper exploits these tax reform episodes and examines whether and how they affected stock return volatility. In so doing, it employs GARCH-type models using standard daily stock data, as well as HAR models based on realized volatility constructed from high-frequency, intraday data. The estimation results are consistent with the views that, in line with some earlier findings, the STT abolition in 1999 reduced volatility, and that the tax reforms in 2003 also reduced volatility through a cut in the dividend tax, but not in the capital gains tax.     

International spillover effects of consumption taxation

This paper investigates the international spillover effects of a revenue-neutral increase in consumption taxes coupled with a reduction in wage taxes in a two-country open economy. Many economists feel that the consumption tax would be an improvement over the income tax. This paper provides counterexamples to the conventional wisdom. We show that conversion to a consumption tax may reduce capital accumulation and may transmit a negative externality to the rest of the countries in the world economy under certain conditions: endogenous labor supply and bequests.     

Tax Pot Episodes in OECD Countries

How to use an unexpected increase in tax revenues (tax pots) was an important issue in most OECD countries in the second half of the 1990s, the question being more precisely what to do with those windfall revenues: decrease taxes, reduce debt, increase expenditures? In this paper, we study such tax pot episodes in OECD countries over the past 40 years. To that end, we propose a definition of a fiscal pot episode. Once identification is complete, we examine the macroeconomic environment within in those episodes, the way this surplus of revenues has been used, and the degree of success in reducing public debt and in fostering growth. As in the fiscal adjustment literature, we then obtain relatively orthodox conclusions about the use of windfall tax revenues, as it is generally better for future growth and debt level to use the money to reduce expenditures and taxes. J. Japan. Int. Econ., December 2002, 16(4), pp. 436–461. University of Toulouse (IDEI), Toulouse, France; and University of Toulouse (GREMAQ, LEERNA, and IDEI), Toulouse, France, Institut Universitaire de France, and CEPR. © 2002 Elsevier Science (USA).Journal of Economic Literature Classification Numbers: E6, H6.     

Public debt and relative prices in a cross-section of countries

This paper examines the effects of debt and distortionary labor taxation on the long-run behavior of the relative price of nontraded goods. At the theoretical level, in a two-sector open economy model we demonstrate that higher public debt, associated with higher taxation, contracts labor supply in both traded and nontraded goods sectors. Relative prices move inversely with relative supply shifts which, in turn, depend on relative factor intensities. At the empirical level, for a panel of advanced economies, we find statistically significant effects of public debt and taxes on the relative price of nontraded goods, with higher debt and taxes associated with higher relative prices.     

我国开展碳税征收有关问题探讨

我国已成为世界最大的能源消费国与全球第二大二氧化碳CO2排放国,开征碳税节能减排的号角日渐吹响。本文从庇古税和双重红利理论出发,在简要回顾了国际社会不同碳税政策优劣的基础上,结合我国国情论证了我国开展碳税征收的重要意义和现实可行性,提出了我国开展碳税政策的三大原则和长短不同时期的税制要素设计方案。     

Second-Best Pollution Taxes and the Structure of Preferences

We characterize optimal taxes on polluting and nonpolluting goods in Ramsey and Mirrlees second-best environments. The polluting good tax differs from the Pigouvian tax by Ramsey terms in the first and by Stiglitz/Mirrlees plus another adjustment term in the second. These terms can be positive, negative, or zero. If preferences are weakly separable in public and private goods, with the private good subutility weakly separable in labor and produced goods, nonpolluting goods are taxed uniformly and the concept of a tax differential between polluting and nonpolluting goods is well defined. The differential is then less than the Pigouvian tax in the Ramsey framework, but it can be greater, equal to, or smaller than the Pigouvian tax in the Mirrlees second best. In Mirrlees second best, if preferences are separable in labor supply and other goods, the second-best tax differential is identical to the Pigouvian tax.     

基础设施建设支出、结构性减税与最优政策选择

财政政策的最优政策选择问题对于国家宏观调控政策的出台具有指导意义。既往的研究忽略了利用动态一般均衡的方法探求具有双重外部性的基础设施建设支出与结构性减税支出的政策选择问题。本文利用引入基础设施建设支出和结构性减税的新凯恩斯DSGE模型,测算比较基建支出和结构性减税的政策福利效应。研究表明：具有双重外部性的基础设施建设支出不仅可以通过提高生产效率的方式促进产出,还可以通过挤入居民消费的方式加强政策福利效应。经过测算,短期的基建支出乘数大于结构性减税的政策乘数。同时,基建支出长期平均产出乘数小于结构性减税的平均产出乘数。与结构性减税政策相比,增加基建支出对于财政资金有限的政府是短期内更加有效的产出刺激政策,但在长期中,结构性减税政策不仅具有较高的政策效应,还可以从消费、劳动、投资等角度实现结构性政策目标。进一步研究发现,地区经济发展水平的不同会导致各地区的最优政策选择存在差异性：发达地区可以通过结构性税收政策解决结构性问题的同时实现长期经济增长;而欠发达地区则更应该注重运用基础设施建设为主的支出政策以促进经济增长;但随着人口逐渐从欠发达地区流出,提高欠发达地区的基建支出是否是可行之策,还需要考虑区域协调发展等诸多因素。     

Fiscal Interactions and the Case for Carbon Taxes Over Grandfathered Carbon Permits

This paper provides simple formulas for adjusting the costsof carbon taxes and tradable carbon permits to account for interactionswith pre-existing tax distortions in the labour market. Bothpolicies reduce labour supply as they increase product pricesand reduce real household wages; the resulting efficiency lossesin the labour market can be substantial relative to partialequilibrium abatement costs. However, much of this added costcan be offset, and perhaps more than offset when additionaldistortions from the tax system are considered, if revenuesfrom carbon taxes or auctioned permits are used to reduce distortionarytaxes. Consequently, there can be a strong case on efficiencygrounds for using carbon taxes or auctioned permits over grandfatheredcarbon permits.     

The Later You Pay,the Higher the k

This paper shows the importance of the age path (life-cycle timing) of any tax for the accumulation of capital in the economy. Income, consumption, and wage taxes differ in their age paths as well as their incentive effects. This paper studies how the differing age path of each tax affects the capital accumulation of the economy in an empirically calibrated life-cycle model. We investigate lump-sum “age” taxes and find in every case that the later the person pays tax, the higher the k of the economy. To analyze the life-cycle timing effect of conventional transactions-based taxes (income, consumption, and wage), we replace each tax with a lump-sum age tax that has the identical age path of tax payments over the life cycle. We find that the timing effect is quantitatively important and often causes the impact of a tax on capital accumulation to be very different from what would be predicted from the incentive effect.     

The effects of casino gambling on state tax revenue

A theoretical model of state tax structure implies that revenue enhancement due to the introduction of casino gambling is less likely in states where incomes taxes do not exist and where casino tax rates are lower than the corresponding tax rates on sales taxable and excise taxable goods. Further, it is clear that casino gambling is likely to adversely impact lottery tax revenues earmarked for education. Due to the cross-price effects of gambling, tax revenues will likely decline in states that introduce nontaxable casino gambling on Indian reservations. In the longer term, as casino gambling proliferates increasing competition among states, there will be negative revenue consequences due to fewer tourism and employment dollars.     

中日韩与东盟(10+3)税收协调研究

中日韩与东盟经济合作的现状决定了(10 3)国家间区域性税收协调的深度和广度。本文通过分析中日韩与东盟(10 3)区域税收国际协调现状、困难,提出了(10 3)税收国际协调应该遵循的原则,建议应建立中日韩与东盟(10 3)区域税收协调机制,以及消除货物、服务贸易中阻碍商品、人员自由流动、涉及投资所得等税收因素,以促进(10 3)国家间商品、资本、劳务、知识产权等的自由流动。     

To Spend the U.S. Government Surplus or to Increase the Deficit? A Numerical Analysis of the Policy Options

This paper provides a numerical analysis of the likely benefits from adopting alternative ways of reducing the projected fiscal surplus (as of the summer 2001) in the United States economy. Calibrating a small growth model, our results suggest that investing the surplus in public capital is likely to yield the greatest long-run welfare gains, although decreasing the capital income tax is only marginally inferior. Both these options dominate increasing government consumption expenditure or decreasing the tax on labor income. By shifting resources from consumption toward capital the two superior policies involve sharp intertemporal tradeoffs in welfare; significant short-run welfare losses are more than compensated by large long-run welfare gains. By contrast, the two inferior options are gradually welfare-improving through time. A crucial factor in determining the benefits of reducing the government surplus through spending is the size of the government sector relative to the social optimum. We find that the second-best optimum is to increase both forms of government expenditure to their respective social optima, while at the same time restructuring taxes by reducing the tax on capital and raising the tax on wage income to achieve the targeted reduction in the surplus. J. Japan. Int. Econ., December 2002, 16(4), pp. 405–435. Department of Economics, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington; and Department of Economics, Terry College of Business, University of Georgia, Atlanta, Georgia. © 2002 Elsevier Science (USA).Journal of Economic Literature Classification Numbers: E62, O41.     

Laffer curves in Japan

This paper investigates the Laffer curves in Japan, based on a neoclassical growth model. It is found that while the labor tax rate is smaller than that at the peak of the Laffer curve, the capital tax rate is either very close to, or larger than, that at the peak of the Laffer curve. This problem is more serious when the consumption tax rate is high. It is also found that to maximize total tax revenue, the government should increase the labor tax rate but decrease the capital tax rate.     

Fiscal disequilibrium in developing countries

Fiscal equilibrium necessitates that ‘permanent’ government expenditures be covered by ‘permanent’ government revenues. The concept of ‘permanent’ goverment expenditures and revenues takes into account future revenue from capital investments as well as temporary windfalls. Hence, equilibrium may exist despite temporary imbalance between revenue and expenditure. The causes of disequilibrium can be classified into five categories: export boom; price-inelastic tax system; public enterprise performance; increased expenditure produced by political exigencies or administrative weaknesses; and worsening terms of trade. In practice, unrealistic customs valuations, specific as opposed to ad valorem taxes and administrative difficulties have been the most common sources of declining government revenue as a percentage of gross domestic product. Increased subsidies both to consumer goods and to public enterprises as well as inadequate control mechanisms have been the most frequent causes of rising government expenditure.