In the NZZ, Hansueli Schöchli summarizes recent evidence. Wer in der Schweiz im Jahr 2017 wie viel Einkommenssteuer bezahlte Anteil Steuerpflichtige (in Prozent) Anzahl Steuerpflichtige Minimales Reineinkommen in Fr. Durchschnittliche Steuerbelastung (in %) Anteil der Einkommenssteuer Bund/Kanton/Gemeinde (in %) 0,01 515 4 548 020 43,8 4,82 0,1 5 150 1 109 760 37,3 9,89 1 51 498 331 731 34,4 24,04 5 257 489 152 799 28,1 42,55 10 514 978 111 403 24,6 53,03 25 1 287 444 73 769...
Read More »“Dynamic Tax Externalities and the U.S. Fiscal Transformation,” JME, 2020
Journal of Monetary Economics, with Martin Gonzalez-Eiras. PDF. (Appendix: PDF.) We propose a theory of tax centralization in politico-economic equilibrium. Taxation has dynamic general equilibrium implications which are internalized at the federal, but not at the regional level. The political support for taxation therefore differs across levels of government. Complementarities on the spending side decouple the equilibrium composition of spending and taxation and create a role for...
Read More »Redrawing the Map of Global Capital Flows
Redrawing the Map of Global Capital Flows: The Role of Cross-Border Financing and Tax Havens, by Antonio Coppola, Matteo Maggiori, Jesse Schreger, and Brent Neiman: We start with the dataset of global mutual fund and exchange traded fund (ETF) holdings provided by Morningstar and assembled in Matteo Maggiori, Brent Neiman and Jesse Schreger (2019a, henceforth MNS). For each position in the data, we link the security’s immediate issuer to its ultimate parent. The resulting data can then be...
Read More »“Dynamic Tax Externalities and the U.S. Fiscal Transformation,” JME
Accepted for publication in the Journal of Monetary Economics, with Martin Gonzalez-Eiras. PDF. (Appendix: PDF.) We propose a theory of tax centralization in politico-economic equilibrium. Taxation has dynamic general equilibrium implications which are internalized at the federal, but not at the regional level. The political support for taxation therefore differs across levels of government. Complementarities on the spending side decouple the equilibrium composition of spending and...
Read More »“Dynamic Tax Externalities and the U.S. Fiscal Transformation,” JME
Accepted for publication in the Journal of Monetary Economics, with Martin Gonzalez-Eiras. PDF. (Appendix: PDF.) We propose a theory of tax centralization in politico-economic equilibrium. Taxation has dynamic general equilibrium implications which are internalized at the federal, but not at the regional level. The political support for taxation therefore differs across levels of government. Complementarities on the spending side decouple the equilibrium composition of spending and...
Read More »“Sinnvoller wäre, den Benzinverbrauch zu besteuern (Better Tax Carbon Emission),” Der Bund, 2019
Der Bund. March 5, 2019. HTML. Short newspaper interview about corrective taxes, tackling problems at the root, and equity vs. efficiency.
Read More »“Sinnvoller wäre, den Benzinverbrauch zu besteuern (Better Tax Carbon Emission),” Der Bund, 2019
Der Bund. March 5, 2019. HTML. Short newspaper interview about corrective taxes, tackling problems at the root, and equity vs. efficiency.
Read More »Tax Evasion and Tax Rates
High rates of tax evasion are not necessarily a consequence of high tax rates. In an NBER working paper, Annette Alstadsæter, Niels Johannesen, and Gabriel Zucman provide estimates of countries’ wealth holdings in “tax havens.” Based on BIS statistics the authors find that: Wealth on the order of 10% of global GDP is held offshore. In Scandinavia, the number is much smaller. In continental Europe, it equals roughly 15%. In some Gulf and Latin American countries, almost 60%. In Russia, the...
Read More »“Fiscal Federalism, Grants, and the U.S. Fiscal Transformation in the 1930s” UoCH, 2017
University of Copenhagen, Department of Economics Discussion Paper 17-18, July 2017, with Martin Gonzalez-Eiras. PDF. We propose a theory of tax centralization and intergovernmental grants in politico-economic equilibrium. The cost of taxation differs across levels of government because voters internalize general equilibrium effects at the central but not at the local level. The equilibrium degree of tax centralization is determinate even if expenditure-related motives for centralization...
Read More »Border Adjustment Tax
On VoxEU, Mary Amiti, Emmanuel Farhi, Gita Gopinath, and Oleg Itskhoki discuss a border adjustment tax and its consequences. … a border adjustment tax … would make export sales deductible from the corporate tax base, while expenditure on imported goods would not be deductible … Therefore, if the border adjustment extends to all imports and exports, it is akin to a combination of a uniform import tariff and an export subsidy on all international trade … … it would limit the incentives for...
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