1 Abstract This study uses labor productivity in terms of real GDP as a basis for comparing a nation's competitiveness. We evaluate how corporate income tax, dividend tax, and the tax on the highest income bracket affect productivity while controlling for several environmental factors. A set of 24 OECD member nations is observed from 1996-2006. It is found that statutory corporate income tax ra...

Current economic instruments aimed at climate change mitigation focus mainly on CO(2) emissions, but efficient climate mitigation needs to focus on other greenhouse gases as well as CO(2). This study investigates the distributional effects of climate change taxes on households belonging to different income and lifestyle groups; and it compares the effects of a CO(2) tax with a multiple GHG tax ...

We propose a clientele-based theory of the optimal maturity structure of government debt. We assume a three-period economy in which clienteles correspond to generations of agents consuming in different periods. An optimal maturity structure exists even in the absence of distortionary taxes, and consists in the government replicating the actions of private agents not yet present in the market. T...

We use the Survey of Consumer Finances to measure the change in federal tax liability that would result should mortgage interest no longer be deductible from taxable income. We argue that the elimination of this housing tax provision would lead households to reshuffle their balance sheet, thereby lowering the amount of interest income taxes collected. We find that the cost of this tax provision...

1. This document aims at carrying out a comparison between two distinct approaches which may be used for the calculation of income on securities: (i) Security-by-security approach. This approach entails combining resident investors’ holdings of foreign securities and non-resident holdings of domestic securities (by individual securities) with the information available (e.g. in a master file dat...

We use the U.S. Survey of Consumer Finances to measure the change in federal tax liability that would result should mortgage interest no longer be deductible from taxable income. We argue that the elimination of this housing tax provision would lead households to reshuffle their balance sheet, thereby lowering the amount of interest income taxes collected. We find that the cost of this tax prov...

We analyze optimal fiscal and monetary policy in an economy with distortionary labor income taxes, nominal rigidities and nominal debt of various maturities. Optimal policy prescribes the exclusive use of long term debt. Such debt mitigates the distortions associated with hedging fiscal shocks by allowing the government to allocate them efficiently across states and periods.

Between 1968 and 1978 four negative income tax experiments were conducted; they were designed to measure labor supply and earnings. The experiments were not designed to measure the effects of government programs on such demographic behavior as marital dissolution, fertility, family composition, or the decision to marry or remarry. Nevertheless, the data from the experiments have been used to an...