Abstract
© 2016 Elsevier B.V. How effective is a more progressive tax scheme in raising revenues? We answer this question in a life-cycle economy with heterogeneity across households and endogenous labor supply. Our findings show that a tilt of the U.S. income tax schedule towards high earners leads to small increases in revenue. Maximal revenue in the long run is only 6.8% higher than in our benchmark – about 0.8% of initial GDP – while revenues from all sources increase by just about 0.6%. Our conclusions are that policy recommendations of this sort are misguided if the aim is to exclusively raise government revenue.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 69-85 |
Journal | Journal of Monetary Economics |
Volume | 80 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 1 Jun 2016 |
Keywords
- Labor supply
- Progressivity
- Taxation