{"title":"Calculating the Corporate Laffer Tax Rate Using Micro-Data","authors":"Carmel Veber, M. Strawczynski","doi":"10.2139/ssrn.3477451","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3477451","url":null,"abstract":"This paper uses administrative panel micro-data of Israeli firms between 2006 and 2015 to calculate Corporate Laffer Tax rate. During this period, the corporate tax rate was gradually reduced, and raised back at the end of the sample. We first propose a theoretical model where three effects interact: a mechanical effect, a dynamic effect - related to opening and closing firms - and an efficiency effect on profits. We run regressions for opening and closing firms, and for profits, as a function of the corporate tax rate, together with a bunch of additional explanatory variables. Using the coefficients obtained from these regressions we estimate the Laffer tax rate, which is in a range between 32.5 and 38 percent – figures that fall into the range shown in the literature by using macro data. Concerning branches, we found that food service is characterized by a low Laffer tax rate (14 percent) while manufacturing by a high one (39 percent).","PeriodicalId":282044,"journal":{"name":"Political Economy: Fiscal Policies & Behavior of Economic Agents eJournal","volume":"1 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-10-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"129396256","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Fiscal Episodes in the EMU: Elasticities and Non-Keynesian Effects","authors":"António Afonso, F. S. Leal","doi":"10.2139/ssrn.3462567","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3462567","url":null,"abstract":"We estimate short- and long-run elasticities of private consumption for fiscal instruments, using a Fixed Effects model for the 19-euro area countries during the period of 1960-2017, to assess how fiscal elasticities vary during fiscal episodes. According to the results, positive “tax revenue” elasticities indicate that consumers have a Ricardian behaviour, whereby they perceive an increase in taxation to be a sign of future government spending. “Social benefits” appear to have a non-keynesian effect on private consumption. In addition, using a narrative approach to identify fiscal consolidations, it is seen that private consumption continues to exhibit a non-keynesian response to tax increases, both in the short and long-run, and “other expenditures” have a recessive impact during “normal times”. Furthermore, “social benefits” are more contractionary in consolidations than in both expansions and “normal times”. Additionally, after the launch of the EMU, expansionary fiscal consolidations became harder to observe, and “other expenditure” and “investment” lost their non-keynesian role.","PeriodicalId":282044,"journal":{"name":"Political Economy: Fiscal Policies & Behavior of Economic Agents eJournal","volume":"43 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"130733407","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The Role of Country by Country Reporting in the Regulation of Aggressive Tax Planning Strategies Employed by Multinational Enterprises","authors":"Eva Danzi","doi":"10.2139/ssrn.3738979","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3738979","url":null,"abstract":"At present, the determination of tax rate and tax collection are a matter of sovereignty under the domain of Nation-states. However, the ability of the domestic governments to tax Multinational Enterprises has been significantly challenged by two developments that have reshaped the economy, namely digitalization and globalization.<br><br>In order to counter the practice of tax avoidance widely employed by global businesses, the OECD led a number of other institutions in the recognition of the need for an enhancement of transparency, through the introduction of Country-by-Country Reporting (CbC Reporting). However, the measure in the form recommended by the OECD, does not provide a powerful and systematic instrument to tackle tax avoidance, as it presents a series of flaws that hamper its efficacity.<br><br>The paper argues in favor of a bold approach to disclosure, and reiterate the need to grant all stakeholders, the right to access information concerning global businesses, on a country-by-country basis. Public CbC Reporting is deemed to represent a turning point in the fight against tax avoidance. In fact, it would entail a large number of benefits, it would give the fight against tax avoidance a systematic nature, as detection of financial crime is, at present, strictly connected with the appearance of major scandals.","PeriodicalId":282044,"journal":{"name":"Political Economy: Fiscal Policies & Behavior of Economic Agents eJournal","volume":"32 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-09-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"127685207","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Dynamic Matching in Overloaded Waiting Lists","authors":"Jacob D. Leshno","doi":"10.2139/ssrn.2967011","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2967011","url":null,"abstract":"This paper introduces a stylized model to capture distinctive features of waiting list allocation mechanisms. First, agents choose among items with associated expected wait times. Waiting times serve a similar role to that of monetary prices in directing agents' choices and rationing items. Second, the expected wait for an item is endogenously determined and randomly fluctuates over time. We evaluate welfare under these endogenously determined waiting times and find that waiting time fluctuations lead to misallocation and welfare loss. A simple randomized assignment policy can reduce misallocation and increase welfare. (JEL C78, D61, D82, D83)","PeriodicalId":282044,"journal":{"name":"Political Economy: Fiscal Policies & Behavior of Economic Agents eJournal","volume":"111 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-08-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"124110993","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Understanding How State Fixed Effects Explain Municipal Reserve Balances","authors":"Kawika Pierson, Jon C. Thompson, F. Thompson","doi":"10.2139/ssrn.3633533","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3633533","url":null,"abstract":"It is puzzling that the single most important explanatory variable for municipal reserves is the state in which a municipality is located. In this paper we leverage a broad panel of US municipalities to show that a pair of behavioral heuristics: anchoring and the bandwagon effect, are an excellent explanation for the state effect, and for municipal reserves. It appears that when it comes to deciding on how much to save, cities target the levels of savings they held in the past, adjusting for the savings levels of their neighbors.","PeriodicalId":282044,"journal":{"name":"Political Economy: Fiscal Policies & Behavior of Economic Agents eJournal","volume":"49 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-08-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"121927812","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Can Taxes Help Ensure a Fair Globalization?","authors":"F. Langot, Rossana Merola, Samil Oh","doi":"10.1596/1813-9450-8975","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1596/1813-9450-8975","url":null,"abstract":"This paper analyzes whether taxation can be successfully used to reduce the incidence of labor informality and achieve higher equality in a globalized economy. To this purpose, it develops a two-area model: a developed country and an emerging country. The two areas differ according to the size of the informal sector, which is characterized by a more flexible labor market and lower productivity. To illustrate the potential role of taxation in achieving a more fair income distribution, the paper introduces a trade shock to simulate the effects of trade liberalization. Trade expansion has often been blamed for leading to an expansion of the informal sector and a widening of wage income disparities. In this context, the paper analyzes whether a budget-neutral tax reform -- switching the tax burden from payroll taxes paid by firms operating in the formal sector to a consumption tax -- can mitigate possible adverse effects of trade liberalization and support labor formalization. The effects of taxation are seen in the context of the trade-offs between growth, labor formality and equity. The analysis suggests that small improvements in formalization, resulting from the tax reform, come at the cost of widening income inequality. To reduce the incidence of low-quality jobs, tax policy interventions should go hand in hand with more effective social protection systems and labor laws.","PeriodicalId":282044,"journal":{"name":"Political Economy: Fiscal Policies & Behavior of Economic Agents eJournal","volume":"31 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-08-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"127861281","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The Impact on Economic Growth of Direct Taxation of Profits Derived from Investments in a Simplified Multi-Jurisdictional System","authors":"Federico Balbiano di Colcavagno","doi":"10.2139/ssrn.3427944","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3427944","url":null,"abstract":"From a structural perspective, this article is divided into two parts. The first part deals with the perception of investments from global Investors at a macroeconomic level. In this respect, the goal is to assess the impact of the direct tax policies related to profits derived from investments on the attractiveness of a certain tax jurisdiction for potential global Investors. As a consequence, there is a need to determine if it is realistic to have an aggregate attractiveness within a simplified system of tax jurisdictions and, assuming that this is the case, what the impact on the global economic demand could be. The fundamental idea is to be able to measure and determine in a certain context the attractiveness of a certain simplified system which, with specific limitations and assumptions, could potentially represent a more complex context. What needs to be verified by the single tax jurisdictions is whether there are new ways to increase the propensity to invest through a proper use of the instrument of direct taxation in connection with the profits derived from investments. In summary, the purpose is to verify what link exists between direct taxation and investments and then to see if it is possible to find an aggregate value that could potentially be included within a simplified global economic demand equation. The second part of the article has the objective of analyzing the benefit to a single tax jurisdiction of having several direct tax rates related to the profits derived from different types of investment. It is interesting to highlight that with the implementation of diversified direct tax jurisdictions for investments, the investment opportunities for the potential Global Investor might increase and, as a consequence, the investments themselves might also increase as the system’s total aggregate attractiveness would increase.","PeriodicalId":282044,"journal":{"name":"Political Economy: Fiscal Policies & Behavior of Economic Agents eJournal","volume":"19 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-07-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"123542111","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"US State Constitutional Entrenchment and Default in the Nineteenth Century","authors":"John A. Dove, A. Young","doi":"10.2139/ssrn.3299535","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3299535","url":null,"abstract":"Constitutional scholars emphasize the importance of an enduring, stable constitutional order. North and Weingast (1989) argue that it consistent with credible commitments to sustainable fiscal policies. However, this view is controversial and has received little empirical study. We use nineteenth century US state-level data to estimate relationships between constitutional design and the likelihood of a government default. Results indicate that more entrenched and less specific constitutions are associated with a lower likelihood of default.","PeriodicalId":282044,"journal":{"name":"Political Economy: Fiscal Policies & Behavior of Economic Agents eJournal","volume":"8 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-07-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"114113584","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Recent Changes in British Wage Inequality: Evidence from Large Firms and Occupations","authors":"Daniel Schaefer, Carl Singleton","doi":"10.1111/sjpe.12225","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/sjpe.12225","url":null,"abstract":"Using a dataset covering a large sample of employees and their mostly very large employers, we study the dynamics of British wage inequality over the past two decades. Contrary to other studies, we find little evidence that recent increases in inequality have been driven by differences in the average wages paid by firms. Instead greater dispersion within firms can account for the majority of changes to the wage distribution. After controlling for the changing occupational content of employee wages, the role of average firm residual differences is approximately zero; the modestly increasing trend in between-firm wage inequality is explained by a combination of changes in between-occupation inequality and the occupational specialisation of firms. It is possible that previous studies, which assign some of the importance of changes in the between-firm component to industry, have misrepresented a significant role for occupations. These results are robust across measures of hourly, weekly and annual wages.","PeriodicalId":282044,"journal":{"name":"Political Economy: Fiscal Policies & Behavior of Economic Agents eJournal","volume":"7 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-06-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"129919684","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Should the United States Adopt CRS?","authors":"Noam Noked","doi":"10.36644/mlr.online.118.should","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.36644/mlr.online.118.should","url":null,"abstract":"The United States' one-sided approach to tax transparency might lead to an unprecedented clash with the European Union (EU) in the near future. In light of the EU's deadline for the United States, the U.S. Treasury and Congress should urgently engage in a discussion on whether the United States should adopt the Common Reporting Standard (CRS) for automatic exchange of financial account information. A recent report from the U.S. Government Accountability Office considered this issue and did not recommend adopting CRS. This Essay discusses the contents of the report, as well as important considerations that were left out of the report.","PeriodicalId":282044,"journal":{"name":"Political Economy: Fiscal Policies & Behavior of Economic Agents eJournal","volume":"39 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"116542380","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}