Taxes and stabilization in contemporary macroeconomic models

The role of proportional and procyclic labor income taxes for automatic stabilization with stochastic productivity is analyzed in a contemporary macroeconomic model based on imperfect competition. The importance of short-run nominal wage rigidity for the effectiveness of progressive taxes on labor income for stabilizing output and raising household welfare is examined in a model that yields complete analytical solutions with stochastic output shocks. Increasing the procyclicity of labor income tax rates raises welfare with and without rigid nominal wages in the model economy. With fully flexible prices and wages, a positive covariance between the distortionary tax rate and productivity reduces the volatility of production and employment. This effect disappears under nominal wage rigidity, although progressive taxation can still raise welfare by reducing the distortion caused by a proportional labor tax. With rigid nominal wages and flexible consumer goods prices, payroll taxes levied at rates that rise with output can serve as automatic stabilizers. JEL Code E62 · H20     

Taxes versus quotas for a stock pollutant

We compare the effects of taxes and quotas for an environmental problem where the regulator and polluter have asymmetric information about abatement costs, and environmental damage depends on pollution stock. An increase in the slope of the marginal abatement cost curve, or a decrease in the slope of the marginal damage curve, favors taxes. An increase in the discount rate or the stock decay rate favors tax usage. Taxes dominate quotas if the length of a period during which decisions are constant is sufficiently small. An empirical illustration suggests that taxes dominate quotas for the control of greenhouse gasses.     

Taxes,Health Care Provision and Aggregate Hours of Work†

Abstract

A recent literature has studied the role of increases in labor taxes and transfers on the evolution of hours of work across OECD countries. Much of this literature studies this issue in a one sector model. This paper develops a two sector model in order to assess various features of health care financing on aggregate hours of work. A key result is that when health care is publicly financed but rationed, the distortion on aggregate hours of work is large and independent of the tax required to finance the system. Moreover, this effect increases over time as aggregate income increases.     

Shaping long-run expectations in problems of coordination

When far-sighted agents may adjust their behavior only gradually, the issue of equilibrium selection becomes one of tension between history and expectations. This paper analyzes whether, in this context, a government policy maker may intervene successfully and redirect expectations away from the inertia of undesired history. The possibilities and limitations of such an approach to `expectation management' are studied within a game-theoretic framework which involves both the government and the population.     

Cost of capital equations under the Australian imputation tax system

Since the introduction of the Australian imputation tax system, there have been problems both in the measurement of the market value of franking (imputation tax) credits and in their application to estimating cash flows and the cost of capital. In the present paper, we provide a convenient and robust resolution to the above problems in the context of an internally consistent set of equations for the cost of capital, asset valuation and the capital asset pricing model (CAPM). The equations apply under both classical and imputation tax systems and under differential taxation of dividends, capital gains and interest. The simple form of the CAPM presented here is shown to encompass more complex versions of the CAPM, which attempt to accommodate the effect of personal taxes. The valuation equations require an estimate of the market value of $1 of the firm's dividends, within which is embedded the market value of the imputation tax credits. Separate estimates of the value of imputation tax credits, or Officer's gamma factor, are not required.     

Edge versus center: finding common ground in the capitalization debate

A continuing debate questions whether capitalization of taxes and public services into house price occurs. The current study argues for an inverse relationship between housing supply elasticity and capitalization rates. A sample is split into houses on the interior and edge of the urban area. Capitalization of schooling and crime occurs everywhere, but it is weaker toward the edge of an urban area where housing supply elasticities and developer activity are greater. Tax results are less robust, but the capitalization rates of crime and school quality are roughly twice as strong on the interior than on the urban fringe.     

论我国所得税会计处理方法的选择——基于所得税会计准则的国际比较研究

会计制度与税收制度之间差异的协调在相当长一段时间内都将是会计理论界与实务界的热点问题。当前,国际会计准则的制定,更多受到了英美等发达市场经济国家的影响,会计信息更强调反映企业的长期盈利能力,而非限于企业短期盈利状况;相应地,其会计报告的概念基础不再采用“收入费用观”,而是转向了“资产负债观”,在所得税会计处理方法上,也强调采用资产负债表债务法。我国新发布的所得税会计准则的一个突出变化是,强调采用资产负债表债务法,是我国所得税会计准则国际趋同的一个重要体现。     

完善我国个人所得税减免问题的思考

一直以来,个人所得税是地税机关征管工作的一个重点难点,也是全社会普遍关注的问题,而在个人所得税的减免税工作中尤为突出,这不仅体现在减免税政策上,也体现在减免税管理上.本文从分析我国现行个人所得税减免税在政策和管理上存在的问题出发,提出了完善个人所得税减免税的思考.     

The Double Dividend Debate: Some Comments from a Politico-Economic Perspective

During recent years, using theoretical and simulation models there has been an extensive debate about the welfare and employment effects of ecological taxes. This paper is a comment on this double dividend debate from a politico-economic perspective. First, a graphical representation of the main results of the theoretical models developed by Bovenberg et al. is given. After some remarks on the difference between the results of the theoretical and simulation models some more general remarks on welfare analysis and optimal taxation theory are made. After this, the question of the tax base is tackled. Finally, it is asked what we can learn from this debate for environmental policy purposes.