Tax Progressivity and Income Inequality

Tax Progressivity and Income Inequality PDF

Author: Joel Slemrod

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 1996-10-13

Total Pages: 388

ISBN-13: 9780521587761

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

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.

Inequality and Optimal Redistributive Tax and Transfer Policies

Inequality and Optimal Redistributive Tax and Transfer Policies PDF

Author: Mr.Howell H. Zee

Publisher: International Monetary Fund

Published: 1999-04-01

Total Pages: 30

ISBN-13: 145184803X

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

This paper explores the revenue-raising aspect of progressive taxation and derives, on the basis of a simple model, the optimal degree of tax progressivity where the tax revenue is used exclusively to finance (perfectly) targeted transfers to the poor. The paper shows that not only would it be optimal to finance the targeted transfers with progressive taxation, but that the optimal progressivity increases unambiguously with growing income inequality. This conclusion holds up under different assumptions about the efficiency cost of taxation and society’s aversion to inequality.

Personal Income Tax Progressivity: Trends and Implications

Personal Income Tax Progressivity: Trends and Implications PDF

Author: Claudia Gerber

Publisher: International Monetary Fund

Published: 2018-11-20

Total Pages: 24

ISBN-13: 1484386000

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

This paper discusses how the structure of the tax system affects its progressivity. It suggests a measure of progressive capacity of tax systems, based on the Kakwani index, but independent of pre-tax income distributions. Using this and other progressivity measures, the paper (i) documents a decline in progressivity over the last decades and (ii) examines the relationship between progressivity and economic growth. Regressions do not reveal a significant impact of progressivity on growth, suggesting that efficiency costs of progressivity may be small—at least for degrees of progressivity observed in the sample.

Tax Progressivity and Income Inequality

Tax Progressivity and Income Inequality PDF

Author: Denvil Duncan

Publisher:

Published: 2008

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13:

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

This paper examines whether income inequality is affected by the structural progressivity of national income tax systems. Using detailed personal income tax schedules for a large panel of countries, we develop and estimate comprehensive, time-varying measures of structural progressivity of national income tax systems over the 1981-2005 period. We find that while progressivity reduces observed inequality in reported gross and net income, it has a significantly smaller impact on true inequality, approximated by consumption-based measures of Gini. We show theoretically and empirically that, under specific conditions, tax progressivity may increase actual inequality, especially in countries with weak law and order and a large informal nontaxable sector. The paper discusses implications of these results for increasingly popular flat tax policies. The Kuznets hypothesis is also supported by the estimates.

Income Tax Progressivity and Income Inequality

Income Tax Progressivity and Income Inequality PDF

Author: Simegn Nigusse

Publisher: LAP Lambert Academic Publishing

Published: 2014-10-08

Total Pages: 104

ISBN-13: 9783659578229

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

Economists justify fair taxation in different ways. one of these approaches is the "utilitarian" approach that argues the amount of tax levied should be based on additional utility that a person may derive from consumption of valuable goods. But, the level of marginal utility for owning money differ from other commodities so that it is inapplicable. On the other hand, the assignments of specific tax should be associated with the benefits that a taxpayer drive from public institutes is also injustice as it cannot assess all individuals those who may not stand at the door of government offices for that tax period. The remaining is the "ability to pay" principle, which importantly lies on the amount of taxable income that the taxpayer earn in the tax period.It is true that individuals that derive similar income should bear similar tax burden horizontal equity, and those who earn more should bear more tax burden. Nonetheless, it is not an easy task to measure the capacity of individuals only on the amount of their earnings as it does not account the number of dependents that the taxpayer may support.

Taxing the Rich

Taxing the Rich PDF

Author: Kenneth Scheve

Publisher: Princeton University Press

Published: 2017-11-07

Total Pages: 282

ISBN-13: 0691178291

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

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.

Top Incomes

Top Incomes PDF

Author: A. B. Atkinson

Publisher: OUP Oxford

Published: 2010-04-01

Total Pages: 984

ISBN-13: 0191500887

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

A rapidly growing area of economic research investigates the top of the income distribution using data from income tax records. This volume brings together studies of top incomes for twelve countries from around the world, including China, India, Japan, Argentina and Indonesia. Together with the first volume, published in 2007, the studies cover twenty two countries. They have a long time span, the earliest data relating to 1875 (for Norway), allowing recent developments to be placed in historical perspective. The volume describes in detail the source data and the methods employed. It will be an invaluable reference source for researchers in the field. Individual country chapters deal with the specific nature of the data for each of the countries, and describe the long-term evolution of top income shares. In the countries as a whole, dramatic changes have taken place at the top of the income distribution. Over the first part of the century, top income shares fell markedly. This largely took the form of a reduction in capital incomes. The different authors examine the impact of the First and Second World Wars, contrasting countries that were and were not engaged. They consider the impact of depressions and banking crises, and pay particular attention to the impact of progressive taxation. In the last 30 years, the shares of top incomes have increased markedly in the US and other Anglo-Saxon countries, reflecting the increased dispersion of earnings. The volume includes statistics on the much-discussed top pay and bonuses, providing a global perspective that discusses important differences between countries such as the lesser increase in Continental Europe. This book, together with volume 1, documents this interesting development and explores the underlying causes. The findings are brought together in a final summary chapter by Atkinson, Piketty and Saez.

Lanterna Rally - Theme by Grace Themes