Download or read book On the Optimal Progressivity of the Income Tax Code written by Juan Carlos Conesa and published by . This book was released on 2005 with total page 46 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This paper computes the optimal progressivity of the income tax code in a dynamic general equilibrium model with household heterogeneity in which uninsurable labor productivity risk gives rise to a nontrivial income and wealth distribution. A progressive tax system serves as a partial substitute for missing insurance markets and enhances an equal distribution of economic welfare. These beneficial effects of a progressive tax system have to be traded off against the efficiency loss arising from distorting endogenous labor supply and capital accumulation decisions.

Download or read book Optimal Progressive Income Taxation in a Bewley Grossman Framework written by Chung Tran and published by . This book was released on 2017 with total page 60 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: We study the optimal progressivity of income taxation in a Bewley-Grossman model of health capital accumulation where individuals are exposed to earnings and health risks over the lifecycle. We impose the U.S. tax and transfer system and calibrate the model to match U.S. data. We then optimize the progressivity of the income tax code. The optimal income tax system is more progressive than current U.S. income taxes with zero taxes at the lower end of the income distribution and a marginal tax rate of over 50 percent for income earners above US$200,000. The Suits index -- a Gini coefficient for the income tax contribution by income -- is around 0:53 and much higher than 0:17 in the U.S. benchmark tax system. Welfare gains from switching to the optimal tax system amount to over 5 percent of compensating consumption. Moreover, we find that the structure of the health insurance system affects the degree of optimal progressivity of the income tax system.The introduction of Affordable Care Act in 2010 -- a program that redistributes wealth from high income and healthy types, to low income and sicker types -- reduces the optimal progressivity level of the income tax system. Finally, we demonstrate that the optimal tax system is sensitive to the parametric specification of the income tax function and the transfer policy.

Download or read book On the Optimal Progressivity of the Income Tax written by Martin S. Feldstein and published by . This book was released on 1973 with total page 20 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book On the Optimal Progessivity of the Income Tax Code written by Juan Carlos Conesa and published by . This book was released on 2005 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Essays on Macroeconomics with Heterogeneous Agents written by Kyooho Kwon and published by . This book was released on 2013 with total page 84 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Chapter 1 develops a heterogeneous-agent general equilibrium model that incorporates both intensive and extensive margins of labor supply. A nonconvexity in the mapping between time devoted to work and labor services distinguishes between extensive and intensive margins. We consider calibrated versions of this model that differ in the value of a key preference parameter for labor supply and the extent of heterogeneity. The model is able to capture the key features of the empirical hours worked distribution, including how individuals transit within this distribution. We then study how the various specifications influence labor supply responses to temporary shocks and permanent tax changes, with a particular focus on the intensive and extensive margin elasticities in response to these changes. We find important interactions between heterogeneity and the extent of curvature in preferences. Chapter 2 builds a model of family labor supply in which individuals choose between full-time work, part-time work, and nonemployment. The model is calibrated to replicate the movements of both male and female workers among these states. The willingness to substitute hours over time (the so-called intertemporal elasticity of labor supply) is critical for many economic analysis. A common strategy for uncovering the value of this willingness is to carry out structural estimation on micro panel data. One general issue in this estimation exercises using micro data is that misspecification of the constraints that individuals face is likely to influence inference about preference parameters. In the model economy, although the individual labor supply problem is a discrete choice problem, individuals are able to adjust hours along the intensive margin by moving between part-time and fulltime work. Intuitively, adjustment along the intensive margin potentially allows one to estimate the true value of the underlying curvature parameter describing the utility from leisure. We explore the extent to which standard labor supply methods can achieve this in our setting. Although these methods deliver precise estimates that are significantly different from zero, the estimates are effectively unrelated to the true underlying values. These methods also deliver elasticity estimates for women, even when the underlying preference parameters are the same for men and women. Chapter 3 investigates the optimal progressive tax code in an incomplete-market economy in which households are linked intergenerationally by altruism and earning ability. The model economy is calibrated to that of the US with the progressive tax code suggested by Gouviea and Strauss (1994). First, I compute the equilibrium with the optimal progressive tax code. Second, I investigate the extent to which the size of government welfare programs affects the optimal progressivity of the income tax code. I find that the optimal tax code for an economy populated with altruistic households is approximately equivalent to a proportional tax of 23.1% with a fixed deduction of approximately $17,000 in 1990 US dollars. For an economy populated with non-altruistic households, however, these numbers are 18.8% and $12,000 respectively. This result implies that inequality is more severe in an economy with intergenerational links so that the policy maker requires a more progressive tax system to provide insurance. Additionally, I find that when the size of the government welfare program is chosen carefully, the additional insurance benefits from the progressive income tax code disappear"--Pages iv-v.

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 Essays on Fiscal Policy and the Macroeconomy written by Lukas Mayr and published by . This book was released on 2018 with total page 142 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The three chapters of this thesis provide a theoretical and quantitative analysis of three elements of the tax-transfer system which recently received increased attention in both the academic and the public policy debate in the United States and Europe. In the first chapter, I show theoretically that optimal taxes on business owners are not entirely characterized by the usual, well established, equity-effciency trade-off but that additional "trickle down" effects reduce optimal tax rates. As taxes on business income reduce investment, the demand for labor declines, which results in lower wages. I show quantitatively, on the basis of a dynamic general equilibrium model calibrated to US data, that these effects substantially reduce the optimal progressivity of the income tax code. In the second chapter, joint with Fabian Kindermann and Dominik Sachs, we argue that the taxation of bequests can have a positive impact on the labor supply of heirs through wealth effects. On the basis of a life-cycle model calibrated to the German economy we show that for each Euro of bequest tax revenue that the government mechanically generates, it can expect another 7.6 Cent through higher labor income taxes of heirs. We show theoretically and quantitatively that a proper modeling of - empirically hard to identify - anticipation effects is crucial to obtain this result. Finally, in the third chapter, joint with Árpád Ábrahám, Joao Brogueira de Sousa and Ramon Marimon, we assess the benefits of a potential European unemployment Insurance System using a multi-country dynamic general equilibrium model with search frictions. In spite of substantial heterogeneity of labor market institutions across Europe, we find that a harmonized benefit system with a low replacement rate but an unlimited duration of eligibility is welfare improving in all countries.

Download or read book The New American Economy written by Bruce Bartlett and published by Macmillan + ORM. This book was released on 2009-10-13 with total page 280 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: As a domestic policy advisor to Ronald Reagan, Bruce Bartlett was one of the originators of Reaganomics, the supply-side economic theory that conservatives have clung to for decades. In The New American Economy, Bartlett goes back to the economic roots that made Impostor a bestseller and abandons the conservative dogma in favor of a policy strongly based on what's worked in the past. Marshalling compelling history and economics, he explains how economic theories that may be perfectly valid at one moment in time under one set of circumstances tend to lose validity over time because they are misapplied under different circumstances. Bartlett makes a compelling, historically-based case for large tax increases, once anathema to him and his economic allies. In The New American Economy, Bartlett seeks to clarify a compelling and way forward for the American economy.

Download or read book Macroeconomic and Distributional Effects of Personal Income Tax Reforms written by Mrs.Sandra V Lizarazo Ruiz and published by International Monetary Fund. This book was released on 2017-09-01 with total page 32 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This paper assesses the macroeconomic and distributional impact of personal income tax (PIT) reforms in the U.S. drawing on a multi-sector heterogenous agents model in which consumers have non-homothetic preferences and sectors differ in terms of their relative labor and skill intensity. The model is calibrated to key characteristics of the US economy. We find that (i) PIT cuts stimulate growth but the supply side effects are never large enough to offset the revenue loss from lower marginal tax rates; (ii) PIT cuts do “trickle-down” the income distribution: tax cuts stimulate demand for non-tradable services which raise the wages and employment prospects of low-skilled workers even if the tax cut is not directly incident on them; (iii) A revenue neutral tax plan that reduces PIT for middle-income groups, raises the consumption tax, and expands the Earned Income Tax Credit can have modestly positive effects on growth while reducing income polarization; (iv) The growth effects from lower income taxes are concentrated in non-tradable service sectors although the increased demand for tradable goods generate positive spillovers to other countries; (v) Tax cuts targeted to higher income groups have a stronger growth impact than tax cuts for middle income households but significantly worsen income polarization, even after taking into account trickle-down effects and an expansion of the Earned Income Tax Credit.

Download or read book Introduction to Computational Economics Using Fortran written by Hans Fehr and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2018 with total page 586 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Introduction to Computational Economics Using Fortran is the essential guide to conducting economic research on a computer. Aimed at students of all levels of education as well as advanced economic researchers, it facilitates the first steps into writing programs using Fortran. Introduction to Computational Economics Using Fortran assumes no prior experience as it introduces the reader to this programming language. It shows the reader how to apply the most important numerical methods conducted by computational economists using the toolbox that accompanies this text. It offers various examples from economics and finance organized in self-contained chapters that speak to a diverse range of levels and academic backgrounds. Each topic is supported by an explanation of the theoretical background, a demonstration of how to implement the problem on the computer, and a discussion of simulation results. Readers can work through various exercises that promote practical experience and deepen their economic and technical insights. This textbook is accompanied by a website from which readers can download all program codes as well as a numerical toolbox, and receive technical information on how to install Fortran on their computer.

Download or read book Tax Systems written by Joel Slemrod and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2013-12-13 with total page 235 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An approach to taxation that goes beyond an emphasis on tax rates to consider such aspects as administration, compliance, and remittance. Despite its theoretical elegance, the standard optimal tax model has significant limitations. In this book, Joel Slemrod and Christian Gillitzer argue that tax analysis must move beyond the emphasis on optimal tax rates and bases to consider such aspects of taxation as administration, compliance, and remittance. Slemrod and Gillitzer explore what they term a tax-systems approach, which takes tax evasion seriously; revisits the issue of remittance, or who writes the check to cover tax liability (employer or employee, retailer or consumer); incorporates administrative and compliance costs; recognizes a range of behavioral responses to tax rates; considers nonstandard instruments, including tax base breadth and enforcement effort; and acknowledges that tighter enforcement is sometimes a more socially desirable way to raise revenue than an increase in statutory tax rates. Policy makers, Slemrod and Gillitzer argue, would be well advised to recognize the interrelationship of tax rates, bases, enforcement, and administration, and acknowledge that tax policy is really tax-systems policy.

Download or read book Public Economics written by Burkhard Heer and published by Springer. This book was released on 2019-02-08 with total page 399 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Today, the most pressing challenges for public economics are of macroeconomic nature: pensions, debt, income distribution, and fiscal sustainability. All these problems are compounded by the phenomenon of demographic transition and aging. This graduate textbook addresses these issues with the help of state-of-the-art macroeconomic tools that are based on a sound microfoundation and rooted in empirical evidence. Different from the standard partial-equilibrium analysis in traditional textbooks on public economics, the concept of general equilibrium helps to account for compensating or amplifying side-effects of economic policy. GAUSS and MATLAB computer code as well as teaching material (slides) are available as downloads from the author's homepage.

Download or read book Who Bears the Lifetime Tax Burden written by Don Fullerton and published by Brookings Institution Press. This book was released on 2010-12-01 with total page 261 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Debates about tax policy arise every year in Washington, and legislative changes occur almost as often. In just the past decade, corporate tax burdens were dramatically reduced and then subsequently increased. But who really bears the burden of taxation? Finding a satisfactory way to address this question remains one of the biggest challenges for economists. While much research has explored this issue using annual data on household incomes and expenditures, this book considers the multiple effects of taxes on individuals over their entire lifetimes. Since annual incomes typically vary from year to year, and change systematically over the course of a lifetime, annual income is not necessarily a good indicator of a person's relative well-being. Instead, Dianne Rogers and Don Fullerton categorize individuals into lifetime income groups, and re-estimate the pattern of earnings over the lifetime of each group. They utilize a general equilibrium model that encompasses household demands, work effort, and savings, and they calculate the distribution of each current tax. Because their model includes all major U.S. federal, state, and local taxes, it can be used to simulate the effects of changes in any of those taxes on investment, productivity, resource allocation, and the distribution of burdens. Don Fullerton is professor of economics at the University of Virginia and visiting professor of economics and public policy at Carnegie Mellon, School of Urban and Public Affairs. He served as Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Tax Analysis from 1985 to 1987. Diane Lim Rogers is assistant professor of economics at Pennsylvania State University.

Download or read book Handbook of Computational Economics written by Karl Schmedders and published by Newnes. This book was released on 2013-12-31 with total page 680 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Handbook of Computational Economics summarizes recent advances in economic thought, revealing some of the potential offered by modern computational methods. With computational power increasing in hardware and algorithms, many economists are closing the gap between economic practice and the frontiers of computational mathematics. In their efforts to accelerate the incorporation of computational power into mainstream research, contributors to this volume update the improvements in algorithms that have sharpened econometric tools, solution methods for dynamic optimization and equilibrium models, and applications to public finance, macroeconomics, and auctions. They also cover the switch to massive parallelism in the creation of more powerful computers, with advances in the development of high-power and high-throughput computing. Much more can be done to expand the value of computational modeling in economics. In conjunction with volume one (1996) and volume two (2006), this volume offers a remarkable picture of the recent development of economics as a science as well as an exciting preview of its future potential. - Samples different styles and approaches, reflecting the breadth of computational economics as practiced today - Focuses on problems with few well-developed solutions in the literature of other disciplines - Emphasizes the potential for increasing the value of computational modeling in economics

Download or read book Taxation of Human Capital and Wage Inequality written by Fatih Guvenen and published by DIANE Publishing. This book was released on 2010-10 with total page 57 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Wage inequality has been significantly higher in the U.S. than in continental European countries since the 1970s. This report studies the role of labor income tax policies (LITP) for understanding these facts. Countries with more progressive LITP have significantly lower before-tax wage inequality at different points in time. Progressivity is also negatively correlated with the rise in wage inequality during this period. Wage inequality arises from differences across individuals in their ability to learn new skills as well as from idiosyncratic shocks. Progressive taxation compresses the (after-tax) wage structure, thereby distorting the incentives to accumulate human capital, in turn reducing the cross-sectional dispersion of (before-tax) wages. Illustrations. This is a print-on-demand publication; it is not an original.

Download or read book Progressive Consumption Taxation written by Robert Carroll and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2012 with total page 224 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The authors observe that consumption taxation is superior to income taxation because it does not penalize saving and investment and propose that the U.S. income tax system be completely replaced by a progressive consumption tax. They argue that the X tax, developed by the late David Bradford, offers the best form of progressive consumption taxation for the United States and outline concrete proposals for the X tax's treatment of numerous specific economic issues.

Download or read book The Triumph of Injustice How the Rich Dodge Taxes and How to Make Them Pay written by Emmanuel Saez and published by W. W. Norton & Company. This book was released on 2019-10-15 with total page 232 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: America’s runaway inequality has an engine: our unjust tax system. Even as they became fabulously wealthy, the ultra-rich have had their taxes collapse to levels last seen in the 1920s. Meanwhile, working-class Americans have been asked to pay more. The Triumph of Injustice presents a forensic investigation into this dramatic transformation, written by two economists who revolutionized the study of inequality. Eschewing anecdotes and case studies, Emmanuel Saez and Gabriel Zucman offer a comprehensive view of America’s tax system, based on new statistics covering all taxes paid at all levels of government. Their conclusion? For the first time in more than a century, billionaires now pay lower tax rates than their secretaries. Blending history and cutting-edge economic analysis, and writing in lively and jargon-free prose, Saez and Zucman dissect the deliberate choices (and sins of indecision) that have brought us to today: the gradual exemption of capital owners; the surge of a new tax avoidance industry, and the spiral of tax competition among nations. With clarity and concision, they explain how America turned away from the most progressive tax system in history to embrace policies that only serve to compound the wealth of a few. But The Triumph of Injustice is much more than a laser-sharp analysis of one of the great political and intellectual failures of our time. Saez and Zucman propose a visionary, democratic, and practical reinvention of taxes, outlining reforms that can allow tax justice to triumph in today’s globalized world and democracy to prevail over concentrated wealth. A pioneering companion website allows anyone to evaluate proposals made by the authors, and to develop their own alternative tax reform at taxjusticenow.org.