Part 1: The Framework: Introduction What is private property? Right-based arguments Special rights and general rights Part II: The arguments: Arguing for property Locke's discussion of property Historical entitlement: some difficulties General-right-based arguments for private property The Proudhon Strategy Hegel's discussion of property Self-ownership and the opportunity to appropriate Property for all Bibliography Index

The Right to Private Property.

In this article we use an original data set to provide the first empirical analysis of the political economy of inherited wealth taxation that covers a significant number of countries and a long time frame (1816–2000) Our goal is to understand why, if inheritance taxes are often very old taxes, the implementation of inheritance tax rates significant enough to affect wealth inequality is a much more recent phenomenon We hypothesize alternatively that significant taxation of inherited wealth depended on (1) the extension of the suffrage and (2) political conditions created by mass mobilization for war Using a difference-in-differences framework for identification, we find little evidence for the suffrage hypothesis but very strong evidence for the mass mobilization hypothesis Our study has implications for understanding the evolution of wealth inequality and the political conditions under which countries are likely to implement policies that significantly redistribute wealth and income

https://isps.yale.edu/sites/default/files/publication/2012/12/ISPS12-001.pdf

Democracy, War, and Wealth: Lessons from Two Centuries of Inheritance Taxation

© 2017 The Publisher Many economists have long held that carbon pricing—either through a carbon tax or cap-and-trade—is the most cost-effective way to decarbonize energy systems, along with subsidies for basic research and development. Meanwhile, green innovation and industrial policies aimed at fostering low-carbon energy technologies have proliferated widely. Most of these predate direct carbon pricing. Low-carbon leaders such as California and the European Union (EU) have followed a distinct policy sequence that helps overcome some of the political challenges facing low-carbon policy by building economic interest groups in support of decarbonization and reducing the cost of technologies required for emissions reductions. However, while politically effective, this policy pathway faces significant challenges to environmental and cost effectiveness, including excess rent capture and lock-in. Here we discuss options for addressing these challenges under political constraints. As countries move toward deeper emissions cuts, combining and sequencing policies will prove critical to avoid environmental, economic, and political dead-ends in decarbonizing energy systems.

Policy sequencing toward decarbonization

Jobs and climate policy: Evidence from British Columbia's revenue-neutral carbon tax

Because of the global commons nature of climate change, international cooperation among nations will likely be necessary for meaningful action at the global level. At the same time, it will inevita...

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The Promise and Problems of Pricing Carbon Theory and Experience

This book reviews empirical evidence relating to five major categories of accidents; automobile accidents; medical malpractice; product related accidents; environmental injuries; and workplace injuries.

Exploring the Domain of Accident Law: Taking the Facts Seriously

As alternatives to more general taxes based on broad measures of each taxpayer's economic capacity, benefit taxes and user fees are praised by some for promoting economic efficiency, government accountability and tax fairness, and condemned by others as reactionary, regressive, and distributively unjust. This paper adopts a more even-handed approach to benefit taxes and user fees, regarding these sources of revenue as preferable to general taxation for specific purposes but inferior to general taxes for other purposes. Part II provides a theoretical framework for analyzing benefit taxes and user fees, defining these levies in contrast to general taxes, examining theoretical arguments for and against government reliance on benefit taxes and user fees, considering the appropriate role of benefit taxes and user fees as methods of government finance, and reviewing the manner in which these levies should be designed in order to achieve the purposes for which they are best suited. Part III considers benefit taxes and user fees in practice, surveying the extent to which governments rely on these levies in Ontario and other jurisdictions, and examining the current and potential application of benefit taxes and user fees to finance various categories of government expenditures. Part IV summarizes the argument of the paper and offers general conclusions.

Benefit Taxes and User Fees in Theory and Practice

Among alternative public policies to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases (GHGs), environmental taxation represents a promising but often under-utilized approach-particularly in North America where the introduction of any new tax involves enormous political challenges. In Canada, however, British Columbia became the first North American jurisdiction to implement a consumption-based environmental tax specifically designed to reduce GHG emissions when BC's provincial government enacted a carbon tax effective July 1, 2008. This paper provides a general overview and initial evaluation of British Columbia's carbon tax, explaining the background to the announcement of the tax in the Provincial Government's 2008 Budget, the structure of the legislation and its relation to other provincial initiatives to address climate change, and the possible implications of the tax for climate change policy in Canada. Part I provides a short background to the tax, summarizing the evolution of Canadian climate change policies up to the announcement of the tax in February 2008. Part II explains the structure of the carbon tax and its relation to other provincial climate change policies, reviewing the Provincial Budget and the specific tax implementing legislation. Part III discusses the implications of the tax for climate change policy in Canada, considering public reaction to the tax in British Columbia and subsequent developments at the federal level.

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Carbon Taxation in British Columbia

When the United States acted to phase-out its estate tax by 2010, it joined a small but growing group of countries which have also repealed their wealth transfer taxes. In Canada, federal gift and estate taxes were repealed in 1972 and provincial wealth transfer taxes were abolished in the 1970s and 1980s. In Australia, State and Commonwealth wealth transfer taxes were repealed in the late 1970s and early 1980s. New Zealand followed suit in the 1990s, reducing estate tax rates to zero in 1992 and repealing the tax in 1999. This paper reviews the abolition of wealth transfer taxes in Canada, Australia and New Zealand, relying on public choice theories of politically efficient revenue structures to help explain the repeal of these taxes in each country. Part II outlines the essential elements of public choice theory and its implications for tax policy. Part III surveys the history of wealth transfer taxes in Canada, Australia and New Zealand, examining in detail the events leading up to the repeal of these taxes, and illustrating the relevance of public choice theory to their abolition in each country. Part IV offers brief conclusions on the significance of this experience for the future of wealth transfer taxation in these and other countries.

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The Abolition of Wealth Transfer Taxes: Lessons from Canada, Australia and New Zealand

This paper presents a preliminary argument for the introduction and design of a lifetime accessions tax: a progressive tax on inherited wealth levied on the cumulative lifetime gifts and inheritances of the recipient.' As such, it contains an elaboration of the rationale for the tax and a presentation of distributive principles to govern its design. However, it does not include a detailed exposition of the actual design of the tax, nor an analysis of its feasibility in a given context. As a result, it provides an ethical blueprint for the design of an ideal inheritance tax without fully considering concrete questions of compliance and administration which any actual tax must ultimately address.' Nevertheless, even this exercise should serve as a useful guide to concrete tax policy. In addition, to the extent that this paper strengthens the ethical argument for taxing inherited wealth and stimulates creative thinking about the actual design of such a tax, it will have served a useful purpose.

David G. Duff

Papers

Exploring the Domain of Accident Law: Taking the Facts Seriously

Benefit Taxes and User Fees in Theory and Practice

Carbon Taxation in British Columbia

The Abolition of Wealth Transfer Taxes: Lessons from Canada, Australia and New Zealand

Taxing Inherited Wealth: A Philosophical Argument