Download or read book Three Essays on Income Tax Progressivity written by Mark J. Mazur and published by . This book was released on 1985 with total page 214 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Three Essays on the Taxation of Unearned Incomes written by Harry Gunnison Brown and published by . This book was released on 1925 with total page 204 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In three essays the author discusses whether taxation can be used as a tool for obtaining and perpetuation of economic democracy, and if so, what system of taxation is the best for the end in view.

Download or read book Tax Progressivity and Income Inequality written by Joel Slemrod and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 1996-10-13 with total page 388 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book assembles nine papers on tax progressivity and its relationship to income inequality, written by leading public finance economists. The papers document the changes during the 1980s in progressivity at the federal, state, and local level in the US. One chapter investigates the extent to which the declining progressivity contributed to the well-documented increase in income inequality over the past two decades, while others investigate the economic impact and cost of progressive tax systems. Special attention is given to the behavioral response to taxation of high-income individuals, portfolio behavior, and the taxation of capital gains. The concluding set of essays addresses the contentious issue of what constitutes a 'fair' tax system, contrasting public attitudes towards alternative tax systems to economists' notions of fairness. Each essay is followed by remarks of a commentator plus a summary of the discussion among contributors.

Download or read book Three Essays on the Political Economy of Progressive Income Taxation written by Daniel Ray Carroll and published by . This book was released on 2009 with total page 250 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Essays on Income Tax Progressivity and Redistribution written by Qi Zhang and published by . This book was released on 2001 with total page 422 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Three Essays on Income Redistribution written by Bo Hyun Chang and published by . This book was released on 2016 with total page 146 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Income redistribution is one of the primary concerns for policy makers and economists. Among the countries in the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the degree of income redistribution (measured by the percentage decrease in the income Gini coefficients between the before and after taxes/transfers) ranges from 5% (Chile) to 49% (Ireland). Understanding and comparing redistribution policies across countries in a unified framework is not an easy task. However, recent developments in quantitative general equilibrium heterogeneous-agents models allow us to address several issues. In this dissertation I study three issues about the redistribution polices using a state-of-the-art quantitative general equilibrium model. Chapter 1 uncovers Pareto weights that justify the current progressivity of income taxes in 32 OECD countries. Chapter 2 shows that the current tax rate in the U.S. can be close to political equilibrium under an ex-ante differences in earnings ability and income-dependent voting behaviors. Chapter 3 finds and explains the negative relationship between economic outlook and income redistribution. In Chapter 1, we develop a model that reproduces income distribution and redistribution policies in 32 OECD countries. The individual income tax schedule is assumed to follow a log-linear tax function, which is widely used in the literature (Heathcote et al., 2016). According to our model, the optimal tax progressivity under the equal-weight utilitarian social welfare function varies from 0.21 (South Korea) to 0.41 (Ireland), and the corresponding optimal redistribution ranges between 20% (South Korea) and 37% (Ireland). For 22 countries, mostly European countries, the current progressivity is higher than optimal. In the other 10 countries, including the U.S., the optimal progressivity is higher than the current one. In our model the optimal tax progressivity is favored by the majority of the population in almost all OECD countries. Then, why does the current (suboptimal) tax rate prevail? The society's choice for redistribution may differ from the equal-weight utilitarian welfare function (Weinzierl, 2014; Heathcote and Tsujiyama, 2016), or can be affected by various factors such as the externality of public expenditure (Heathcote et al., 2016), and the preference heterogeneity (Lockwood and Weinzierl, 2015). In this chapter we ask a rather simple positive question within the utilitarian framework: what are the weights in the social welfare function that justify the current tax progressivity as optimal? We interpret these relative weights in the social welfare function as broadly representing each society's preferences for redistribution and political arrangement. According to our calculations, in Sweden, the average Pareto weight on the richest 20% of the population is only 0.53, whereas that on the poorest 20% is 1.74. By contrast, in Chile, the Pareto weight on the richest 20% is 2.65, whereas that on the poorest 20% is a mere 0.15. In the U.S. that on the richest 20% is 1.45 and that on the poorest 20% is 0.60. We also compare our social weights to those from Lockwood and Weinzierl (2016), who extend Mirrleesian (1971) framework to uncover weights. To our knowledge, this is the first study that compares how societies aggregate individual preferences over redistributive policies, and does so across a large set of countries. The utilitarian social welfare function often predicts that the optimal income tax rate in the U.S. is much higher than the current rate (e.g., Piketty and Saez, 2013). In Chapter 2, we focus on the interaction of ex-ante heterogeneity in household earnings and income-dependent turnout rates. While the relationship between each factor and income redistribution has been reported by many studies (Benabou and Ok, 2001; Charite et al., 2015, Mahler, 2008), quantitatively neither effect alone is large enough to explain the current tax rate. However, the interaction of the two magnifies the effect on redistribution, political equilibrium can be close to the current tax rate. More specifically, we construct three model economies: no ex-ante heterogeneity (NH), small ex-ante heterogeneity (SH), and large ex-ante heterogeneity (LH). All three economies match the overall income dispersion (Gini coefficient) in the data, but the share of ex-ante productivity (ability) and ex-post productivity (shocks) is different. According to our estimates following Guvenen (2009), 31% (SH) and 57% (LH) of wage dispersions are driven by ex-ante productivity. In the NH, by design, all wage dispersions are from ex-post productivity. For tractability, a flat tax rate and a lump-sum transfer are assumed in this chapter. The current tax rates in the three economies are set to 24% from the U.S. data. According to our model, the optimal tax rates under an equal-weight utilitarian social welfare criterion are similar in all three economies: 37% (NH), 38% (SH) and 37%. These high optimal tax rates are consistent with a majority of literature based on a utilitarian social welfare function (e.g., Piketty and Saez, 2013; Heathcote and Tsujiyama, 2016). The tax rates chosen by a simple majority rule are 37% (NH), 37%(SH), and 34% (LH), still much higher than the current rate. However, once we introduce increasing voter turnout rates with income, as in the data (Mahler, 2008), the political equilibrium vastly differs across the three economies. The tax rates chosen by effective voting are 35% (NH), 33% (SH), and 27% (LH). In LH, where income dispersion is driven mainly by ex-ante productivity, the insurance benefit from a heavy tax-and-transfer policy diminishes, and high-ability households are more against strong redistribution. If their turnout rates are higher, a relatively low tax rate can become a political equilibrium, which is close to the current tax rate. In Chapter 3, I find a new relationship between the economic outlook and redistribution among 33 OECD countries between 1996 and 2010, using the historical forecasts in the World Economic Outlook and the Standardized World Income Inequality Database. A one percentage point decrease in expected growth is associated with a 0.005 point and 0.9% increase in the income Gini before taxes and transfers. To examine this relationship I introduce labor-augmenting technology into my model at the cost of assuming a simple tax structure (linear tax and lump-sum transfer). The current tax rate (21.8%) and labor-augmenting productivity growth (3%) are chosen to match the U.S. economy before the Great Recession. Then, after an unanticipated productivity slowdown, the productivity growth decreases to 1%. Once productivity slows down, households save more to prepare for lost consumption in the future. As the capital-to-output ratio increases, the interest rate goes down from 4% to 1.7%. As seen in previous chapters, explaining the current tax rate is still disputed. Leaving this question to other studies, this chapter focuses on the effect of a productivity slowdown. More specifically, social weights that justify the current tax rates are derived, and, given these weights, the optimal tax rate under the low-growth regime is calculated. While all households save more against productivity slowdown, poor households, who are close to borrowing constraints, have more difficulty in increasing their savings. Hence, higher tax rates (23.6%) and more transfers can enhance social welfare under the low-growth regime. This relationship between expected growth and redistribution is similar to my empirical estimates. A general equilibrium effect from increased capital plays an important role. If interest rates are fixed, private savings are more effective against a productivity slowdown, since households can continue to save at the same rate. In this economy the optimal tax rate under the low-growth regime is much lower than the current rate."--Pages v-viii.

Download or read book Three Essays on the Econometrics of Taxation written by Jon M. Bakija and published by . This book was released on 2000 with total page 370 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Three Essays in Macroeconomics written by Cheuk Shing Leung and published by . This book was released on 2019 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "This thesis aims at investigating the determinants of wealth concentration in both the U.S. and Canada and the optimality of progressive taxation in shaping the wealth distribution and welfare. The first chapter studies the optimal tax progressivity for single and married households. This analysis shows that neglecting the presence of females and married households results in a suboptimal level of tax progressivity. This highlights the fact that taking household composition into account is important. The optimal progressive taxation features less progressive taxes on married households compared to singles. This finding is due to the greater capacity of couples to self-insure. Singles cannot hedge against income risk effectively, and hence it is optimal to provide more social insurance for singles than couples. The second chapter assesses the fundamental determinants of the high level of wealth concentration in the U.S.. We use data on the joint distribution of earnings, capital income and wealth to identify the quantitative importance of several driving forces, which are a high concentration of labor income, capital income risk, and bequests. Results show that labor income concentration is the most important source of wealth dispersion for almost the entire distribution. The third chapter examines the source of difference in top wealth and income shares between the U.S. and Canada, paying particular attention to differences in the progressivity of taxation. We find that differences in earnings inequality between the two countries plays a significant role in explaining the observed difference in wealth concentrations. The role of differences in the tax system is substantial for consumption inequality but minor for wealth"--

Download or read book Three Essays on the Incidence of State Personal Income Taxes written by Marian Vaillant and published by . This book was released on 1995 with total page 274 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book The Uneasy Case for Progressive Taxation written by Harry Kalven and published by . This book was released on 1952 with total page 236 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Three Essays in Search of a Conversation written by Sherman Lewis and published by Hayward Area Planning Association. This book was released on 2022-08-27 with total page 191 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: These essays are for Americans concerned about the future of our country and for policy wonks. By and large, the political process is controlled by those who take an intertest in politics, large in number but small as a percent of population. Are you a member of the political class? Membership is voluntary. Our first 800 years of thinking: science culture and empathy from the Enlightenment ~1600 to ~ 2400 The Crisis of the Anthropocene: The most comprehensive description of all issues of the crisis in less than 100 pages. For the purpose of going through your mind to influence your brain. Musings on our Present Discontent: America, not advanced, not a democracy. Right to life for baby; right to choose for mom. Taxation. The security of a free state. Issues not discussed. The threat from within, Trumpism. The threat from without: Putinism. How to participate. Renewal.

Download or read book Essays in Macroeconomics with Household and Policy Heterogeneity written by Johannes Fleck and published by . This book was released on 2021 with total page 180 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The first chapter of this thesis is "State Tax and Transfer Progressivity and the Consumption Response to Fiscal Stimulus". It studies the relationship between tax policies of US state governments and the marginal propensity to consume (MPC) out of stimulus checks. For the 2001 and 2008 stimulus episodes, I document striking regional discrepancies; the household average MPC in states with the most regressive taxes and transfers was between 23 and 59 cents per Dollar received but no different from zero in progressive states. I do not find evidence that other state policies, such as labor and credit market policies, or exogenous differences in earnings risk contribute to explaining MPC cross-state discrepancies. The second chapter "Federal, State and Local Tax Progressivity", coauthored with J. Heathcote, K. Storesletten and G. Violante, measures the progressivity of taxes and transfers for each of the US states and compares it to federal progressivity. Our findings are twofold. First, most nonfederal taxes, especially property taxes, are regressive. Second, state and local tax regressivity varies substantially; states which have more progressive tax and transfer systems tend to be Democrat-leaning, to be more ethnically diverse and to have lower income polarization. The third chapter "The Tax Progressivity of the Fifty Nifty: Evidence from America's Working Poor", coauthored with C. Simpson-Bell explores how insurance against transitory earnings shocks for households with low in- comes varies across US states. We overcome limitations in survey data by constructing a micro simulation model to measure the combined response of federal and state income taxes and transfers to a shock to pre-tax earnings. We account for the geographic uniformity of federal policies as well as regional variation in income distributions, price levels and net transfer policies of state governments. Our findings document large geographic differences in marginal tax rates faced by low-income households.

Download or read book Taxation written by Martin O'Neill and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2018-07-19 with total page 272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is the first book to give a collective treatment of philosophical issues relating to tax. The tax system is central to the operation of states and to the ways in which states interact with individual citizens. Taxes are used by states to fund the provision of public goods and public services, to engage in direct or indirect forms of redistribution, and to mould the behaviour of individual citizens. As the contributors to this volume show, there are a number of pressing and thorny philosophical issues relating to the tax system, and these issues often connect in fascinating ways with foundational questions regarding property rights, public justification, democracy, state neutrality, stability, political psychology, and other moral and political issues. Many of these deep and fascinating philosophical questions about tax have not received as much sustained attention as they clearly merit. The aim of advancing the debate about tax in political philosophy has both general and more specific aspects, ranging across both over-arching issues regarding the tax system as a whole and more specific issues relating to particular forms of tax policy. Thinking clearly about tax is not an easy task, as much that is of central importance is missed if one proceeds at too great a level of abstraction, and issues of conceptual and normative importance often only come sharply into focus when viewed against real-world questions of implementation and feasibility. Serious philosophical work on the tax system will often therefore need to be interdisciplinary, and so the discussion in this book includes a number of scholars whose expertise spans across neighbouring disciplines to philosophy, including political science, economics, public policy, and law.

Download or read book Success and Luck written by Robert H. Frank and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2017-09-26 with total page 202 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From New York Times bestselling author and economics columnist Robert Frank, a compelling book that explains why the rich underestimate the importance of luck in their success, why that hurts everyone, and what we can do about it How important is luck in economic success? No question more reliably divides conservatives from liberals. As conservatives correctly observe, people who amass great fortunes are almost always talented and hardworking. But liberals are also correct to note that countless others have those same qualities yet never earn much. In recent years, social scientists have discovered that chance plays a much larger role in important life outcomes than most people imagine. In Success and Luck, bestselling author and New York Times economics columnist Robert Frank explores the surprising implications of those findings to show why the rich underestimate the importance of luck in success—and why that hurts everyone, even the wealthy. Frank describes how, in a world increasingly dominated by winner-take-all markets, chance opportunities and trivial initial advantages often translate into much larger ones—and enormous income differences—over time; how false beliefs about luck persist, despite compelling evidence against them; and how myths about personal success and luck shape individual and political choices in harmful ways. But, Frank argues, we could decrease the inequality driven by sheer luck by adopting simple, unintrusive policies that would free up trillions of dollars each year—more than enough to fix our crumbling infrastructure, expand healthcare coverage, fight global warming, and reduce poverty, all without requiring painful sacrifices from anyone. If this sounds implausible, you'll be surprised to discover that the solution requires only a few, noncontroversial steps. Compellingly readable, Success and Luck shows how a more accurate understanding of the role of chance in life could lead to better, richer, and fairer economies and societies.

Download or read book Progressive Taxation in Theory and Practice written by Edwin Robert Anderson Seligman and published by . This book was released on 1909 with total page 358 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Designing Fiscal Redistribution The Role of Universal and Targeted Transfers written by Mr.David Coady and published by International Monetary Fund. This book was released on 2020-06-26 with total page 27 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: There is a growing debate on the relative merits of universal and targeted social assistance transfers in achieving income redistribution objectives. While the benefits of targeting are clear, i.e., a larger poverty impact for a given transfer budget or lower fiscal cost for a given poverty impact, in practice targeting also comes with various costs, including incentive, administrative, social and political costs. The appropriate balance between targeted and universal transfers will therefore depend on how countries decide to trade-off these costs and benefits as well as on the potential for redistribution through taxes. This paper discusses the trade-offs that arise in different country contexts and the potential for strengthening fiscal redistribution in advanced and developing countries, including through expanding transfer coverage and progressive tax financing.

Download or read book Taxing the Rich written by Kenneth Scheve and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2017-11-07 with total page 282 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A groundbreaking history of why governments do—and don't—tax the rich In today's social climate of acknowledged and growing inequality, why are there not greater efforts to tax the rich? In this wide-ranging and provocative book, Kenneth Scheve and David Stasavage ask when and why countries tax their wealthiest citizens—and their answers may surprise you. Taxing the Rich draws on unparalleled evidence from twenty countries over the last two centuries to provide the broadest and most in-depth history of progressive taxation available. Scheve and Stasavage explore the intellectual and political debates surrounding the taxation of the wealthy while also providing the most detailed examination to date of when taxes have been levied against the rich and when they haven't. Fairness in debates about taxing the rich has depended on different views of what it means to treat people as equals and whether taxing the rich advances or undermines this norm. Scheve and Stasavage argue that governments don't tax the rich just because inequality is high or rising—they do it when people believe that such taxes compensate for the state unfairly privileging the wealthy. Progressive taxation saw its heyday in the twentieth century, when compensatory arguments for taxing the rich focused on unequal sacrifice in mass warfare. Today, as technology gives rise to wars of more limited mobilization, such arguments are no longer persuasive. Taxing the Rich shows how the future of tax reform will depend on whether political and economic conditions allow for new compensatory arguments to be made.