Tax reform

About: Tax reform is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 24690 publications have been published within this topic receiving 439255 citations. The topic is also known as: tax reforms.

Capital Theory and Investment Behavior

Abstract: Tax policy and investment behaviour: tax policy and the cost of capital services, estimates of the parameters of the investment function, the effects of tax policy on investment behaviour, Robert E. Hall and Dale W. Jorgenson application of the theory of optimum capital accumulation: theory of investment behaviour, econometrics of investment behaviour, estimates of the parameters of the investment functions, impact of tax policy on investment behaviour, Robert E. Hall and Dale W. Jorgenson technology and decision rules in the theory of investment behaviour: introduction, technology, objective function, optimal investment policy, decision rules, Dale W. Jorgenson the economic impact of investment incentives: introduction, postwar investment incentives in the United States, the economic analysis of investment incentives, current policy alternatives, direct impact, total impact, Dale W. Jorgenson the economic theory of replacement and depreciation: introduction, replacement, depreciation, form of the replacement distribution, Dale W. Jorgenson investment and production - a review: introduction, form of the production function - cross sections, form of the production function - time series, returns to scale, Dale W. Jorgenson the investment tax credit and counter-cyclical policy: summary, introduction, impact of the investment tax credit, alternative investment tax credits, appendices - the investment equation, optimization procedures, Roger H. Gordon and Dale W. Jorgenson inflation-proof depreciation of assets: the first-year system, administrative aspects, ... against two others, future economic impact, a better way, Alan J. Auerbach and Dale W. Jorgenson inflation and corporate capital recovery: introduction, theoretical frame-work, empirical implementation, capital recovery during the postwar period, proposed systems for capital recovery, Dale W. Jorgenson and Martin A. Sullivan the efficiency of capital allocation: introduction, technology and preferences, general equilibrium model, appendix - list of instrumental variables, Dale W. Jorgenson and Kun-Young Yun tax policy and capital allocation: introduction, tax policy, technology and preferences, general equilibrium model, tax reform, appendix - list of instrumental variables, Dale W. Jorgenson and Kun-Young Yun. (Part contents).

The power to tax : analytical foundations of a fiscal constitution

Abstract: Commenting on his collaboration with Geoffrey Brennan on "The Power to Tax", James M. Buchanan says that the book is "demonstrable proof of the value of genuine research collaboration across national-cultural boundaries." Buchanan goes on to say that "The Power to Tax" is informed by a single idea - the implications of a revenue-maximizing government." Originally published in 1980, "The Power to Tax" was a much-needed answer to the tax revolts sweeping across the United States. It was a much-needed answer as well in the academic circles of tax theory, where orthodox public finance models were clearly inadequate to the needs at hand. The public-choice approach to taxation which Buchanan had earlier elaborated stood in direct opposition to public-finance orthodoxy.What Buchanan and Brennan constructed in "The Power to Tax" was a middle ground between the two. As Brennan writes in the foreword, "The underlying motivating question was simple: Why not borrow the motivational assumptions standard in public-choice theory and put them together with assumptions about policy-maker discretion taken from public-finance orthodoxy?" The result was a controversial book - and a much misunderstood one as well. Looking back twenty years later, Brennan feels confirmed in the rightness of the theories he and Buchanan espoused, particularly in their unity with the public-choice tradition: "The insistence on motivational symmetry is a characteristic feature of the public choice approach, and it is in this dimension that "The Power to Tax" and the orthodox public-finance approach diverge."

The Macroeconomic Effects of Tax Changes: Estimates Based on a New Measure of Fiscal Shocks

Abstract: This paper investigates the impact of tax changes on economic activity. We use the narrative record, such as presidential speeches and Congressional reports, to identify the size, timing, and principal motivation for all major post war tax policy actions. This analysis allows us to separate legislated changes into those taken for reasons related to prospective economic conditions and those taken for more exogenous reasons. The behavior of output following these more exogenous changes indicates that tax increases are highly contractionary. The effects are strongly significant, highly robust, and much larger than those obtained using broader measures of tax changes. (JEL E32, E62, H20, N12) Tax changes have been a major public policy issue in recent years. The tax cuts of 2001 and 2003 were passed amid firestorms of debate about their likely effects. Some policymakers claimed that the cuts would both stimulate the economy in the short run and increase normal output in the long run. Others argued that they would raise interest rates and lower confidence and thereby reduce output in both the short run and the long run. That views of the effects of tax changes vary so radically largely reflects the fact that measuring these effects is very difficult. Tax changes occur for many reasons. Some legislated tax changes are passed for philosophical reasons or to reduce an inherited budget deficit. Others are passed because the economy is weak and predicted to fall further, or because a war is in progress and government spending is rising. And many tax changes are not legislated at all, but occur automatically because the tax base varies with the overall level of income, or because of changes in stock prices, inflation, and other nonpolicy forces. Because the factors that give rise to tax changes are often correlated with other developments in the economy, disentangling the effects of the tax changes from the effects of these underlying factors is inherently difficult. There is pervasive omitted variable bias in any regression of output on an aggregate measure of tax changes. This paper suggests one way of dealing with this omitted variable bias. There exists a vast narrative record describing the history and motivation of tax policy changes. We first use this narrative history to separate legislated tax changes from those arising from nonpolicy develop ments. We then use the information on motivation to separate the legislated tax changes into those that are likely to be contaminated by other developments affecting output, and those that can legitimately be used to measure the macroeconomic effects of tax changes. Finally, we use the legitimate observations to derive estimates of the effects of tax changes on output that are likely to be less biased than previous estimates. Section I of the paper elaborates on the conceptual framework for this study. It emphasizes that what we seek to identify from the narrative record are tax changes that are not systematically

What Washington Means by Policy Reform

Abstract: This chapter aims to set out what would be regarded in Washington as constituting a desirable set of economic policy reforms. It identifies and discusses ten policy instruments about whose proper deployment Washington can muster a reasonable degree of consensus. The policy instruments include fiscal deficits, public expenditure priorities, tax reform, interest rates, exchange rates, trade policy, foreign direct investment, privatization, deregulation, and property rights. When a fiscal deficit needs to be cut, there are three major expenditure categories on which views are strongly held: subsidies, education and health, and public investment. There is very broad agreement in Washington that large and sustained fiscal deficits are a primary source of macroeconomic dislocation in the forms of inflation, payments deficits, and capital flight. The economic policies that Washington urges on the rest of the world may be summarized as prudent macroeconomic policies, outward orientation, and free-market capitalism.