|
on Public Economics |
| By: | Andrew Bibler; Laura Grigolon; Keith F. Teltser; Mark J. Tremblay |
| Abstract: | Governments increasingly use changes in tax rules to combat evasion. We develop a general approach to point-identify tax compliance along with supply and demand elasticities; identification requires data on prices and quantities before and after changes in tax enforcement and a demand or supply shifter. We illustrate our approach using data on Airbnb collection agreements, where full enforcement is achieved by shifting the tax burden away from hosts to renters via the platform. We find that taxes are paid on roughly zero to 3.5 percent of Airbnb transactions prior to enforcement. |
| Keywords: | tax evasion, compliance, statutory incidence, tax invariance, Airbnb, sharing economy, voluntary collection agreements |
| JEL: | H20 H22 H26 L10 |
| Date: | 2024–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bon:boncrc:crctr224_2024_505&r=pbe |
| By: | Summers, Andy |
| Abstract: | A major constraint on progressive tax reform is that somehow, the richest always seem to find ways not to pay. Is this inevitable? Focusing on the UK context, I begin by reviewing two past attempts to raise taxes on those at the top – the changes to the top rate and dividend rates of income tax, and reforms to ‘non-dom’ tax status – and explore whether and why these policies failed. I then discuss three key policy areas that must be addressed to successfully increase taxes on the super-rich: capital taxes (on capital gains, inheritances and gifts), the challenges posed by international mobility of assets and individuals, and trusts. Reform of these areas could directly raise additional revenue from the super-rich and would also provide a backstop needed to support more familiar levers such as increasing the top income tax rate |
| Keywords: | tax policy; the super-rich; planning and avoidance; behavioural responses |
| JEL: | J1 |
| Date: | 2022–11–24 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ehl:lserod:121990&r=pbe |
| By: | Jan Behringer; Lena Dräger; Sebastian Dullien; Sebastian Gechert |
| Abstract: | We use novel German survey data to investigate how perceptions and information about public finances influence attitudes towards public debt and fiscal rules. On average, people strongly underestimate the debt-to-GDP ratio, overestimate the interest-to-tax-revenue ratio and favor a tighter German debt brake. In an information treatment experiment, people consider public debt to be a more (less) severe problem once they learn the actual debt-to-GDP or interest-to-tax-revenue ratio is higher (lower) than their estimates. However, the treatment effects partly vanish when anchoring respondents’ beliefs with historical public debt figures. We find no treatment effects on attitudes towards the debt brake. |
| Keywords: | public debt, fiscal rules, information treatment, expectations |
| JEL: | E60 D83 H31 H60 |
| Date: | 2024 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_10891&r=pbe |
| By: | Azevedo, Deven; Wolf, Hendrik; Yamazaki, Akio |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates the employment impacts of British Columbia’s revenue neutral carbon tax. Using the synthetic control method with firm-level data, we find considerable heterogeneity in employment responses to the policy. We show that firm size matters. In particular, the carbon tax had a negative impact on large emissionintensive firms, but simultaneous tax cuts and transfers increased the purchasing power of low income households, substantially benefiting small businesses in the service sector and food/clothing manufacturing. Furthermore, we find that aggregate employment was not adversely affected by the policy. Our results provide additional insight for the “job-shifting hypothesis” of revenue neutral carbon taxes. |
| Keywords: | carbon tax; employment; unilateral climate policy; firms |
| JEL: | E24 H23 J20 Q50 |
| Date: | 2023–01–31 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ehl:lserod:117346&r=pbe |
| By: | Marè, M.;; Porcelli, F.;; Vidoli, F.; |
| Abstract: | The provision of health services plays a central role in the promotion of public welfare and maintaining a healthy society. However, inequalities in access to health care persist between countries, regions, and communities, reflecting the complex interplay of many social, economic, and cultural factors. This article aims to explore the complex relationship between tax deductions and the spatial correlation between health demand and private supply. By using an original data set at an unprecedented municipal level and employing a spatial counterfactual empirical strategy, we contribute to the existing literature in two ways. First, we show a strong territorial heterogeneity of health tax expenditure at the municipal level, which persists even after controlling for explanatory factors, and essentially rewards northern Italian regions and penalizes southern ones. Second, we investigate whether greater proximity to a private health provider respects a public one produces a different spending behavior in citizens, highlighting once again the specificity of private healthcare provision in the Italian context. This behavior was analyzed with a geographically weighted analysis, which allowed us to assess the strong spatial non-stationarity by including local potential hidden confounders. |
| Keywords: | tax expenditures; health tax expenditures; spatial counterfactual approach; |
| JEL: | I14 H24 C21 |
| Date: | 2024–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:yor:hectdg:24/03&r=pbe |
| By: | Marx, Ive (University of Antwerp) |
| Abstract: | Basic income advocates see a universal income grant, no questions asked, as bringing many potential benefits, not in the least as an ironclad protection against poverty, if set high enough. It is hard to know with any certainty what a world with a sizeable basic income would look like but we can make theoretically and empirically informed guesses about its likely first-round impacts. Neither the insights we get from (quasi-)experimental research nor those from (micro-)simulation modelling are very encouraging. The estimated first-round effects on poverty are for the most part disappointing, especially in countries with comparatively well-functioning social protection systems. Aggregate employment is likely to fall, especially affecting women. It requires an enormous leap of faith to assume that the effects further down the road would be miraculously better. Moreover, there seems to be a vast gap between what people think a basic income would bring them and how it would actually impact them. Under any plausible scenario there would be many net losers. In short, there are few sound reasons at this time to argue for replacing the better performing social protection systems currently in place with a basic income, especially if a more adequate social floor is the main concern. |
| Keywords: | basic income, poverty, income distribution, policy interaction |
| JEL: | D31 H55 I38 C81 |
| Date: | 2024–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp16757&r=pbe |