Fiscal StudiesPub Date : 2022-11-13DOI: 10.1111/1475-5890.12311
Francesco Flaviano Russo
{"title":"Cash thresholds, cash expenditure and tax evasion","authors":"Francesco Flaviano Russo","doi":"10.1111/1475-5890.12311","DOIUrl":"10.1111/1475-5890.12311","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Using data for Italy, I show that cash thresholds that forbid the use of cash for big transactions are effective tools to reduce cash income and cash circulation. Less cash income, in turn, hinders tax evasion. I present an estimate of the increase in tax revenue implied by the empirically estimated reduction of cash income determined by the thresholds.</p>","PeriodicalId":51602,"journal":{"name":"Fiscal Studies","volume":"43 4","pages":"387-403"},"PeriodicalIF":7.3,"publicationDate":"2022-11-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42939866","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Fiscal StudiesPub Date : 2022-10-19DOI: 10.1111/1475-5890.12309
Monica Costa Dias, James P. Ziliak
{"title":"Symposium: perspectives on carbon taxes – introduction","authors":"Monica Costa Dias, James P. Ziliak","doi":"10.1111/1475-5890.12309","DOIUrl":"10.1111/1475-5890.12309","url":null,"abstract":"<p>With this issue of <i>Fiscal Studies</i>, we inaugurate a new section entitled ‘Symposia’. This new section will publish commissioned papers from leading scholars and policy analysts on issues of topical importance to public economics and microeconomic policy. In some cases these symposia will emphasise policy issues, while in other cases contributions will emphasise methodological issues, and sometimes both. Over the course of future symposia, papers will be more diverse in format and content than traditional research papers. A common thread running through the papers will be perspectives guided by rigorous research evidence, but with the aim of reaching a broad audience across the research, policy and stakeholder communities.</p><p>In this inaugural issue we focus on global climate change, and in particular on policies and practices to tax carbon emissions within and across borders. Economists have, in general, been highly supportive of carbon-based taxation as a mechanism to efficiently reduce greenhouse gas emissions. However, the implementation of such a tax is challenging when spillover effects across state and national borders are considered. The first paper in the symposium, which is by Michael Keen of the University of Tokyo along with Ian Parry and James Roaf of the International Monetary Fund, examines the design, rationale and potential impact of a border carbon adjustment. The fundamental concern of unilateral action on carbon pricing is that others will free ride on the policy, thus potentially harming domestic producers and consumers vis-à-vis trading partners. The authors propose a border carbon adjustment that assesses a charge (either direct taxation or tradable pollution permits) on the carbon content of imported products. The intent is that the charge will be equivalent to domestic carbon pricing, and with the option of rebates for the carbon content of exports. The paper first spells out the theoretical and practical motivations for a border carbon adjustment and then proposes a series of design options to provide guidance to policymakers.</p><p>The second paper in the symposium, which is by Stuart Adam, Isaac Delestre, Peter Levell and Helen Miller, all of the Institute for Fiscal Studies, documents the patchwork of current tax and subsidy programmes that aim to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions in the United Kingdom, and examines how these have created oftentimes conflicting incentives and distortions for households and firms to reduce their carbon emissions. The authors calculate implied carbon taxes levied by source and user of energy and show, for instance, that businesses are taxed more heavily than households, but that energy-intensive industries face lower carbon tax rates than other businesses; emissions from long-haul air travel are lightly taxed when compared with those from short-haul air travel, and for those flying first class the implied carbon tax rate is still lower. On this, the UK is not exceptional; rat","PeriodicalId":51602,"journal":{"name":"Fiscal Studies","volume":"43 3","pages":"207-208"},"PeriodicalIF":7.3,"publicationDate":"2022-10-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/1475-5890.12309","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41660765","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Fiscal StudiesPub Date : 2022-09-05DOI: 10.1111/1475-5890.12308
Stuart Adam, Isaac Delestre, Peter Levell, Helen Miller
{"title":"Tax policies to reduce carbon emissions","authors":"Stuart Adam, Isaac Delestre, Peter Levell, Helen Miller","doi":"10.1111/1475-5890.12308","DOIUrl":"10.1111/1475-5890.12308","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Carbon taxes or similar pricing instruments could play a crucial role in helping countries decarbonise their economies. No country has a single carbon price that applies to all greenhouse gas emissions. The UK is typical in having adopted a complex patchwork of policies that raise the cost of different polluting activities to different degrees, resulting in implied carbon taxes that vary greatly across sources of emissions. We document and quantify these inconsistencies in the case of the UK, and assess the case for greater uniformity after accounting for considerations of efficiency, distribution, carbon leakage and the use of alternative policy instruments. We argue for greater rationalisation of environmental taxes in the UK and other developed economies.</p>","PeriodicalId":51602,"journal":{"name":"Fiscal Studies","volume":"43 3","pages":"235-263"},"PeriodicalIF":7.3,"publicationDate":"2022-09-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/1475-5890.12308","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41835468","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Fiscal StudiesPub Date : 2022-08-31DOI: 10.1111/1475-5890.12307
Michael Keen, Ian Parry, James Roaf
{"title":"Border carbon adjustments: rationale, design and impact","authors":"Michael Keen, Ian Parry, James Roaf","doi":"10.1111/1475-5890.12307","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/1475-5890.12307","url":null,"abstract":"<p>This paper assesses the rationale, design and impact of border carbon adjustments (BCAs). Large disparities in carbon pricing between countries raise concerns about competitiveness and emissions leakage. BCAs are potentially the most effective domestic instrument for addressing these challenges – but design details are critical. For example, limiting coverage of the BCA to energy-intensive, trade-exposed industries facilitates administration, and initially benchmarking BCAs on domestic emissions intensities would ease the transition for trading partners with emission-intensive production. It is also important to consider how to apply BCAs across countries with different approaches to the mitigation of emissions, and the treatment of exports. BCAs alone do not solve the free-rider problem in carbon pricing, but might ease it, and be a step towards an effective international carbon price floor.</p>","PeriodicalId":51602,"journal":{"name":"Fiscal Studies","volume":"43 3","pages":"209-234"},"PeriodicalIF":7.3,"publicationDate":"2022-08-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/1475-5890.12307","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"109176055","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Fiscal StudiesPub Date : 2022-08-24DOI: 10.1111/1475-5890.12306
Michaël Sicsic
{"title":"Does labour income react more to income tax or means-tested benefits reforms?","authors":"Michaël Sicsic","doi":"10.1111/1475-5890.12306","DOIUrl":"10.1111/1475-5890.12306","url":null,"abstract":"<p>I provide estimates of compensated elasticities of labour income with respect to the marginal net-of-tax rate on the 2006–15 period for France, exploiting not only income tax reforms but also means-tested benefits reforms. I use semi-parametric graphical evidence and a classic two-stage least-squares estimation applied to a rich data set including both financial and socio-demographic variables. I obtain an estimated compensated elasticity on the intensive margin around 0.2–0.3 in response to income tax reforms, and around 0.1 in response to in-work benefit reforms, while I found no statistically significant response to family allowance reforms. I show that the difference between elasticities contradicts the theoretical prediction of the classical labour supply model. These asymmetric responses are very robust to a large number of robustness checks. The most plausible explanation is that income tax reforms are more salient and better perceived than benefit reforms. I also highlight an average compensated elasticity of 0.1 for all transfers on the intensive margin and provide heterogeneous elasticities depending on types of people, which could be used for optimal tax analyses.</p>","PeriodicalId":51602,"journal":{"name":"Fiscal Studies","volume":"43 3","pages":"291-319"},"PeriodicalIF":7.3,"publicationDate":"2022-08-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48238467","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Fiscal StudiesPub Date : 2022-06-17DOI: 10.1111/1475-5890.12304
{"title":"Editorial announcement","authors":"","doi":"10.1111/1475-5890.12304","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/1475-5890.12304","url":null,"abstract":"<p>The Editors are pleased to welcome Jonathan Colmer and Egbert Jongen to join the Board of Associate Editors at <i>Fiscal Studies</i>.</p>","PeriodicalId":51602,"journal":{"name":"Fiscal Studies","volume":"43 2","pages":"201"},"PeriodicalIF":7.3,"publicationDate":"2022-06-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/1475-5890.12304","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"109170753","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Fiscal StudiesPub Date : 2022-06-06DOI: 10.1111/1475-5890.12305
David Madden
{"title":"The socio-economic gradient of cognitive test scores: evidence from two cohorts of Irish children","authors":"David Madden","doi":"10.1111/1475-5890.12305","DOIUrl":"10.1111/1475-5890.12305","url":null,"abstract":"<p>There is a well-established socio-economic gradient in child cognitive test scores. This gradient emerges at early ages, with some evidence that it can widen as children age. We investigate this phenomenon with two longitudinal cohorts of Irish children who take such tests at ages ranging from 9 months to 17 years, using maternal education and equivalised income as our measure of socio-economic resources. The gradient is observed from the age of 3 with tentative evidence that it widens as children get older. We have evidence on a wide range of tests and there is some evidence that the gradient is slightly stronger for tests involving crystalised as opposed to fluid intelligence. Exploiting the longitudinal nature of the data, we also investigate mobility across the distribution of test scores, with some evidence that such mobility is less among poorer children, which raises the disturbing possibility that such children could become trapped in low achievement.</p>","PeriodicalId":51602,"journal":{"name":"Fiscal Studies","volume":"43 3","pages":"265-290"},"PeriodicalIF":7.3,"publicationDate":"2022-06-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/1475-5890.12305","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46073607","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Fiscal StudiesPub Date : 2022-04-06DOI: 10.1111/1475-5890.12299
Brian Nolan, Juan C. Palomino, Philippe Van Kerm, Salvatore Morelli
{"title":"Intergenerational wealth transfers in Great Britain from the Wealth and Assets Survey in comparative perspective","authors":"Brian Nolan, Juan C. Palomino, Philippe Van Kerm, Salvatore Morelli","doi":"10.1111/1475-5890.12299","DOIUrl":"10.1111/1475-5890.12299","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Wealth surveys that collect information on intergenerational transfers provide new scope for comparative study of those transfers and their relationship with wealth across rich countries. However, this is problematic in the case of Great Britain, due to specific features of the Wealth and Assets Survey (WAS), the central source of survey-based household wealth data, in particular the extent of missing information in its first wave. This has severely constrained efforts to investigate patterns of wealth transfer in Great Britain in comparative perspective. In this paper, we set out these issues and present ways of dealing with them. On this basis, we then examine the main similarities and differences in patterns of intergenerational transmission of wealth between Great Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the United States. Our findings reveal common features across these countries as well as some important respects in which Great Britain was distinctive, though less of an outlier than the US. About 35 per cent of British households reported receiving an intergenerational wealth transfer at some point, similar to most of the comparator countries but much higher than the US. We conclude by setting out how WAS can be enhanced to address these issues at source, proposals with which the Office for National Statistics is seriously engaged.</p>","PeriodicalId":51602,"journal":{"name":"Fiscal Studies","volume":"43 2","pages":"179-199"},"PeriodicalIF":7.3,"publicationDate":"2022-04-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/1475-5890.12299","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48446085","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The decline of home-cooked food","authors":"Rachel Griffith, Wenchao (Michelle) Jin, Valérie Lechene","doi":"10.1111/1475-5890.12298","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/1475-5890.12298","url":null,"abstract":"<p>The share of home-cooked food in the diet of UK households declined from the 1980s. This was contemporaneous with a <i>decline</i> in the market price of ingredients for home cooking relative to ready-to-eat foods. We consider a simple model of food consumption and time use that captures the key driving forces behind these apparently conflicting trends. We show that observed behaviour can be rationalised by the fact that the shadow price of home-cooked food, which accounts for the fact that cooking takes time, has risen relative to the price of ready-to-eat food, due to the increase in the market value of time of secondary earners. We discuss the implications for policies that aim to encourage healthier diets.</p>","PeriodicalId":51602,"journal":{"name":"Fiscal Studies","volume":"43 2","pages":"105-120"},"PeriodicalIF":7.3,"publicationDate":"2022-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/1475-5890.12298","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"109158562","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Fiscal StudiesPub Date : 2022-03-22DOI: 10.1111/1475-5890.12296
{"title":"Editorial announcement","authors":"","doi":"10.1111/1475-5890.12296","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/1475-5890.12296","url":null,"abstract":"<p>As of March 2022, Ingvild Almås, Timothy Beatty, John Creedy, Mariacristina De Nardi, Guyonne Kalb, Clare Leaver and Helen Simpson have stepped down from the Editorial Board of <i>Fiscal Studies</i>. James Cloyne, Monica Costa Dias, Matthias Parey and James Ziliak would like to thank them for their enormous contributions to the journal. The Editors are pleased to welcome Anne Brockmeyer, Eric French, Sonya Krutikova, Peter Levell, Eric Ohrn, Emma Tominey and Mazhar Waseem to join the Board of Associate Editors at <i>Fiscal Studies</i>.</p>","PeriodicalId":51602,"journal":{"name":"Fiscal Studies","volume":"43 1","pages":"97"},"PeriodicalIF":7.3,"publicationDate":"2022-03-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/1475-5890.12296","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"109173146","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}