We utilize a simple overlapping generations model with a balanced budget rule to study the effect of distortionary taxation on cycles and local stability of equilibria. We show that under proportional taxation there is a critical tax rate above which cycles will vanish, while in the case of linearly progressive taxation there is a critical level of exemption below which cycles will vanish as we...

This paper presents an analysis of the extent to which tax planning affects the level of the inheritance tax rate that is perceived to be fair. In a factorial survey conducted in Germany, tax planning was found to increase the fair tax rate by approximately 4 percentage points. The fair tax rate is determined by not only the size of the bequest, the relationship of the heir to the bequeather, a...

This paper studies the impact of corporate tax policy on the economy in the presence of both convex and nonconvex capital adjustment costs in a dynamic general equilibrium model. We show that corporate tax policy generates both intensive and extensive margin effects via the channel of marginal Q. Its impact is determined largely by the strength of the extensive margin effect, which in turn depe...

This paper studies corporate tax competition if it is costly to learn some of the elements that determine the e¤ective tax burden. Search cost may, but need not, eliminate the tax competition pressure. The outcome depends on the boundaries of tax rate and tax base choices. Search cost can explain the empirically observed tax cuts cum base broadening. Keywords: Costly search, tax competition, co...

The neglect of administrative issues is a serious limitation of optimal tax theory, with implications for its practical applicability. We focus on an important class of administrative problems, namely that the tax bases are measured with some error. We also consider the full set of tax instruments. We find that consumption taxes can perform the ‘social insurance role of taxation’, a role previo...

Any tax system imposing selective commodity taxation must have procedures for assigning different goods to tax rate categories. Real-world tax legislation does this on the basis of observable characteristics, allowing the tax system to handle a constantly evolving set of available goods. We recast the theory of optimal taxation in the language of characteristics using the Gorman-Lancaster model...

he many burdens of government include those attributable to taxation, monetary policy, regulations, and restrictions on civil liberties. This paper is specific to the economic burden of taxation, without in any way minimizing the other types of burdens. The economic burden of taxation is a function of three conditions: the level of the average tax rate, the relation of the marginal tax rate to ...

Using frequent state and local policy revisions of apparel tax exemptions in Connecticut, New York and Vermont, I study how the sales tax affects the retail market for apparel. First, I present new evidence on the effect of the sales tax on pre-tax prices, the pass-through rate. Unlike the previous literature on this topic, I employ detailed item-level data on prices, use large good-specific ch...

Recent aggregate tests of the impact of taxes on long-run growth rates in OECD countries remain vulnerable to two criticisms. First, they typically use ‘an aggregate average rate, or constructed marginal rate, that probably does not affect the rate that any particular economic decision maker is facing’ (Myles, 2007, p.89). Second, despite increased testing of corporate tax effects, the models e...