Optimal oil taxation in a small open economy

The international oil market has been very volatile over the past three decades. In industrialized economies, especially in Europe, taxes represent a large fraction of oil prices and governments do not seem to react to oil price shocks by using oil taxes strategically. The aim of this paper is to analyze optimal oil taxation in a dynamic stochastic general equilibrium model of a small open economy that imports oil. We find that in general it is not optimal to distort the oil price paid by firms with taxes, neither in the long run nor over the business cycle. The general result could be reversed depending on environmental considerations and available fiscal instruments. We provide simulations to illustrate the optimal response to shocks in such cases.     

基于我国成品油定价机制的石油双寡头行为分析

我国成品油定价实行最高零售限价已三年有余,价格管制在平抑国际油价冲击的同时也产生许多问题,管制效果备受争议,政府的补贴政策也饱受诟病.基于成品油最高零售限价,石油双寡头、寡头与政府之间的博弈行为表明:最高零售限价不能解决高油价问题,对形成成品油市场的竞争格局作用不大,而且政府在与石油寡头的博弈中处于弱势地位,针对国有石油企业的补贴政策将造成财政资金的浪费.我国成品油定价改革方向为市场定价,根本问题是尚未形成垄断竞争的市场格局.成品油定价改革应在培育垄断竞争格局的基础上,改革燃油税为从价计征、完善石油储备体系,为市场化定价改革铺平道路.     

Using time-varying transition probabilities in Markov switching processes to adjust US fiscal policy for asset prices

This paper tests for nonlinear effects of asset prices on the US fiscal policy. By modeling government spending and taxes as time-varying transition probability Markovian processes (TVPMS), we find that taxes significantly adjust in a nonlinear fashion to asset prices. In particular, taxes respond to housing and (to a smaller extent) to stock price changes during normal times. However, at periods characterized by high financial volatility, government taxation only counteracts stock market developments (and not the dynamics of the housing sector). As for government spending, it is neutral vis-a-vis the asset market cycles. We conclude that, correcting the fiscal balance and, notably, the revenue side for time-varying effects of asset prices provides a more accurate assessment of the fiscal stance and its sustainability.     

Optimal fiscal and monetary policy with sticky wages and sticky prices

We determine the optimal degree of price inflation volatility when nominal wages are sticky and the government uses state-contingent inflation to finance government spending. We address this question in a well-understood Ramsey model of fiscal and monetary policy, in which the benevolent planner has access to labor income taxes, nominally risk-free debt, and money creation. Our main result is that sticky wages alone make price stability optimal in the face of shocks to the government budget, to a degree quantitatively similar as sticky prices alone. Key for our results is an equilibrium restriction between nominal price inflation and nominal wage inflation that holds trivially in a Ramsey model featuring only sticky prices. Our results thus show that when nominal wages are sticky, setting real wages as close as possible to their efficient path is a more important goal of optimal monetary policy than is financing innovations in the government budget via state-contingent inflation. A second important result is that the nominal interest rate can be used to indirectly tax the rents of monopolistic labor suppliers. Taken together, our results uncover features of Ramsey fiscal and monetary policy in the presence of a type of labor market imperfection that is widely-believed to be important.     

Non-connectedness of the set of equilibrium money prices: The static economy

A static economy in which nominal taxes and transfers are balanced, under certain conditions, has a set of equilibrium money prices containing a proper interval. Two examples are given in which the entire set must consist of a proper interval. Then, an example is presented in which the set of equilibrium money prices is not connected. While the set contains a proper interval for balanced fiscal policies, the entire set is not in general a single interval.     

RAMSEY TAXES MEET PRICE RIGIDITY

‘Ramsey taxes’ are commodity taxes that minimize deadweight loss. Evidence has shown dramatic differences in the extent of price rigidity across goods: while the prices of some goods change frequently, the prices of other goods seldom change. This paper examines Ramsey taxes in the presence of heterogeneous price rigidity. We find that, to minimize deadweight loss, lower (higher) tax rates should be imposed on goods with rigid prices if their relative prices are too high (low) relative to the would‐be situation of no price stickiness. Intuitively, Ramsey taxes remedy the relative price distortion caused by the price rigidity of some goods. We calibrate our model to data from Taiwan and the USA, showing a significant cut in welfare cost if Ramsey rather than uniform taxes are applied.     

A Normative Analysis of Housing-Related Tax Policy in a General Equilibrium Model of Housing Quality and Prices

We evaluate an array of housing-related tax policies in a general equilibrium model with endogenous housing quality and prices. The local government facilitates the provision of local public amenities, financed by an array of housing-related taxes, including a developer gross revenue tax, a property tax, a land tax, and a development license fee. In a competitive spatial equilibrium, all households optimize and reach the same utility, all monopolistically competitive developers optimize and receive zero profit, and both housing and land markets clear. We examine the effects of various tax policies on housing quality, housing prices, land rent, as well as the population and housing density. By evaluating quantitatively the welfare of the local economy, we establish a globally optimal tax scheme in the housing market: complete elimination of the property tax and imposition of a lower gross revenue tax (possibly fully eliminated) than both development and land taxes.     

On Choquet prices in a GEI-model with intermediation costs

This article analyses whether the representation of asset prices by Choquet integration can be justified from a general equilibrium point of view. We demonstrate that if transaction costs functionals are increasing in the volume of trade, positive homogeneous and satisfy an additivity condition, the equilibrium price functional typically does not satisfy all the Choquet properties. Whereas subadditivity and positive homogeneity can be shown to hold for the equilibrium price functional, this is generally not the case for monotonicity and additivity of prices for comonotone income streams.     

Inflation,tax rules,and the prices of land and gold

Traditional theory implies that the relative price of consumer goods and of such real assets as land and gold should not be permanently affected by the rate of inflation. A change in the general rate of inflation should, in equilibrium, cause an equal change in the rate of inflation for each asset price. The experience of the past decade has been very different from the predictions of this theory: the prices of land, gold, and other such stores of value have increased by substantially more than the general price level. The present paper presents a simple theoretical model that explains the positive relation between the rate of inflation and the relative price of such real assets. More specifically, in an economy with an income tax, an increase in the expected rate of inflation causes an immediate increase in the relative price of such ‘store of value’ real assets. The behavior of real asset prices discussed in this paper is thus a further example of the non-neutral response of capital markets to inflation in an economy with income taxes.     

An Experimental Investigation of Hard and Soft Price Ceilings in Emissions Permit Markets

Tradable emissions permits have been implemented to control pollution levels in various markets and represent a major component of legislative efforts to control greenhouse gas emissions. Because permits are supplied for a fixed level of pollution, allowing the market for permits to determine the price, price control mechanisms may be needed to protect firms from price spikes caused by fluctuations in the demand for permits. We test permit markets in an experimental laboratory setting to determine the effectiveness of several price control mechanisms, with special attention on the soft price ceiling. We focus on a static setting similar to some of the earliest experimental work focused on price ceilings. Results indicate that both permit supply adjustments and price ceilings (hard ceilings) effectively limit elevated prices in this setting. By contrast, reserve auctions to implement soft ceilings do not consistently control prices, especially when a minimum reserve permit price is applied. Furthermore, the grandfathering of permits allows permit sellers to realize significant welfare gains at the expense of buyers under a soft ceiling policy. Our results thus highlight several advantages of hard ceilings for controlling short term price increases.     

General Equilibrium Impacts of Monetary and Fiscal Policies on Welfare of Households in South Asia

Impacts of fiscal and monetary policies are assessed in an open economy two sector multi‐household general equilibrium tax model with money for South Asia. Despite impressive growth rates there is evidence for alarming gaps in the distribution of income among households that require very careful design of economic policies. Generally the impacts of fiscal expansions are positive for all categories of households under the flexible price system but the gains are much higher for households in the upper income group than for those in the bottom. In theory the equilibrium relative prices guarantee the optimal allocation of resources in such economy. Simulation results show that demand, output and employment are sensitive to the preferences of consumers, confidence of producers and sector specific production technologies. Monetary policy is super‐neutral under flexible price regime but can complement fiscal policy well when aggregate prices are made sticky. Combination of monetary and fiscal policies in this manner can have extensive impacts in efficiency and redistribution. Higher taxes distort incentives to work and investment from richer households slowing down the economy. This reduces the welfare level of both rich and poor. Flexibility in prices enhances the market mechanism and makes the fiscal policy more effective and efficient.     

对影响征地补偿价格相关因素的调查与分析

对河北省高碑店市10个村50位失地农户自1994年以来三次大规模征地的土地征用价格进行实际调查显示,土地征用后的用途是影响土地补偿价格的重要因素。另外,土地补偿价格是国家、用地单位、村集体和农户四者博弈的结果,土地补偿价格的高低与农民的自组织和实力相关。建议对不同用途的土地征用,在相同区位实行相同的土地征用和补偿价格,国家在向用地单位提供土地时,根据不同用途收取不同的出让税金,以保证政府收支平衡。     

Testing the Link between Public Intervention and Food Price Variability: Evidence from Rice Markets in the Philippines

Abstract . A model of inter- and intra-annual food price variability is presented to study the impacts of government food-market interventions in the Philippines. A conceptually simple econometric model is described that provides a general method for testing the impact of government stock changes on prices at farmgate and retail levels. Monthly price and stock data for the period 1975–1992 are used to empirically measure the influence of Philippine government buffer-stock programs on seasonal and annual variability of producer and consumer rice prices. NFA stock changes are shown to have had no significant stabilizing influence on seasonal and annual price changes at the aggregate level.     

Purchasing Power Parity When Prices Are I(2)

This paper examines the purchasing power parity (PPP) hypothesis over the modern float using data on 15 OECD currencies. Evidence is presented that suggests the price levels evolve as second-difference stationary processes, i.e., integrated of order two ( P₁– I (2)). A necessary condition for PPP when prices are I (2) is that prices are cointegrated across countries to an I (1) relative price. In general this relative price is not the same as the simple price ratio. For some of the relationships examined, this relative price level is cointegrated with the exchange rate, implying a long-run equilibrium between nominal exchange rates and prices.     

Optimum commodity taxation in pooling equilibria

This paper extends the standard model of optimum commodity taxation (Ramsey, F., 1927. A Contribution to the Theory of Taxation. Economic Journal 37, 47–61; Diamond, P., Mirrlees, J., 1971. Optimal Taxation and Public Production, II: "Tax Rules". American Economic Review 61, 261–278) to a competitive economy in which markets are inefficient due to asymmetric information. Insurance markets are prime examples: consumers impose varying costs on suppliers but firms cannot associate costs with individual customers and consequently all are charged equal prices. In such a competitive pooling equilibrium, the price of each good is equal to the average of individual marginal costs weighted by equilibrium quantities. We derive modified Ramsey–Boiteux Conditions for optimum taxes in such an economy and show that, in addition to the standard formula, they include first-order effects which reflect the deviations of prices from marginal costs and the response of equilibrium quantities to the taxes levied. An explanation of the additional terms is provided. It is shown that a condition on the monotonicity of demand elasticities enables to sign the direction of the deviations from the standard case.     

Prices,product differentiation and quality measurement: A comparison between hedonic and matched model methods

The paper provides an analysis of the problems of construction of quality-adjusted price indexes within the framework of the theory of product differentiation. In the general case of price-making behaviour on the part of firms, hedonic regressions are defined on the basis of reduced forms of the equation relating equilibrium prices to product characteristics. The paper considers the reduced form given by the marginal cost function and shows that the Laspeyres hedonic price index provides a lower bound to the quality-adjusted rate of price change while the Paasche hedonic price index provides an upper bound to the quality-adjusted rate of price change. The properties of hedonic price indexes are compared with those of matched model indexes. The theory is applied to the study of personal computer prices in Italy during the 1995–2000 period.     

Demand uncertainty,competition, and ‘non-binding’ price controls

In our paper, we will present a general model that demonstrate that a price floor or a price ceiling, although not effective at the existing market price, nevertheless alters the competitive equilibrium and leads to erroneous policy conclusions.     

Strategic pricing of equity issues

Summary. Consider a general equilibrium model where agents may behave strategically. Specifically, suppose some firm issues new shares. If the primary market price is controlled by the issuing institution and investors' expectations on future equity prices are constant in their share purchases, the share price on the primary market cannot exceed the secondary market share price. In certain cases this may imply strict underpricing of newly issued shares. If investors perceive an influence on future share prices overpriced issues may occur in equilibrium. This provides an example of strategic price manipulation in general equilibrium models with sequential markets. Received: March 14, 2000; revised version: May 15, 2001     

Optimal fiscal and monetary policy under sticky prices

This paper studies optimal fiscal and monetary policy under sticky product prices. The theoretical framework is a stochastic production economy. The government finances an exogenous stream of purchases by levying distortionary income taxes, printing money, and issuing nominal non-state-contingent bonds. The main findings of the paper are: First, for a miniscule degree of price stickiness (i.e., many times below available empirical estimates) the optimal volatility of inflation is near zero. Second, small deviations from full price flexibility induce near random walk behavior in government debt and tax rates. Finally, price stickiness induces deviation from the Friedman rule.     

Bubbles in UK house prices: evidence from ESTR models

Recent movements in stock and house prices have led to an examination of the presence of bubbles. Whilst, there is extensive research on stock price data, there is relatively less for house prices. This paper uses a present‐value model for house prices to test for the presence of bubbles. The results support the presence of a non‐fundamental component within UK national and regional house prices. In particular, for the majority of series considered, evidence is presented of linear non‐stationarity within the fundamental present‐value relationship, and of non‐linear stationarity, implying the presence of a non‐fundamental, or bubble, component. Furthermore, evidence is presented that prices adjust quicker when they are below fundamental equilibrium, than when they are above fundamental equilibrium, i.e. there is downward price stickiness. These results support the hypothesis that house price dynamics can be characterised by price‐to‐price momentum. Finally, forecast evidence suggests that real prices are likely to adjust downwards and converge with fundamental value.