IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eut/journl/v18y2014i2p47.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Capital Gains Tax and Housing Price Bubble: A Cross-Country Study

Author

Listed:
  • Ali Akbar Gholizadeh

    (Department of Economics, Bu Ali Sina university, Hamedan, Iran.)

Abstract

Policy makers in housing sector seeks to use instruments by which they can control volatility of housing price and prevent high disturbances of the bubble and price shocks, or at least, reduce them. In the portfolio and speculation theories, it is emphasized that speculative demand for housing is the main cause of shocks and price volatilities in the sector. The theory of housing price bubble also describe the dominance of speculative demand and importance of asset demand in the composition of housing demand as the main cause of housing price shocks. Therefore, capital gains tax, which is used in most developed countries, is regarded one of the strong instruments to control and direct housing speculation to minimize damages to the sector. In this study, an attempt has been paid to investigate the effect of capital gains tax on housing prices using panel data for 18 countries (including Iran) over the period from 1991 to 2004. The results show that the efficiency of capital gains tax in countries with capital gains tax system is higher than that of countries lacking the system. In all estimated equations, the real capital gains tax and its share of total tax, contribute significantly to the stabilization of housing prices and controlling housing price volatility. The intermediate objectives of monetary policy, including pegged interest rates and liquidity play a significant role in achieving the ultimate goals of monetary policy such as the housing price bubble and inflation. In addition, the prices of assets have been among the factors affecting housing prices in countries under study.

Suggested Citation

  • Ali Akbar Gholizadeh, 2014. "Capital Gains Tax and Housing Price Bubble: A Cross-Country Study," Iranian Economic Review (IER), Faculty of Economics,University of Tehran.Tehran,Iran, vol. 18(2), pages 47-71, Spring.
    • Handle: RePEc:eut:journl:v:18:y:2014:i:2:p:47
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: ftp://80.66.179.253/eut/journl/20142-3.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. William Vickrey, 1939. "Averaging of Income for Income-Tax Purposes," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 47, pages 379-379.
    2. Auerbach, Alan J, 1991. "Retrospective Capital Gains Taxation," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 81(1), pages 167-178, March.
    3. Roger H. Gordon & David F. Bradford, 1980. "Taxation and the Stock Market Valuation of Capital Gains and Dividends: Theory and Empirical Results," NBER Chapters, in: Econometric Studies in Public Finance, pages 109-136, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    4. Stiglitz, Joseph E., 1983. "Some aspects of the taxation of capital gains," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 21(2), pages 257-294, July.
    5. Clemente De Lucia, 2007. "Did the FED Inflate a Housing Price Bubble? A Cointegration Analysis between the 1980s and the 1990s," ISAE Working Papers 82, ISTAT - Italian National Institute of Statistics - (Rome, ITALY).
    6. Mas-Colell, Andreu & Whinston, Michael D. & Green, Jerry R., 1995. "Microeconomic Theory," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780195102680, Decembrie.
    7. Landsman, Wayne R. & Shackelford, Douglas A., 1995. "The Lock-In Effect of Capital Gains Taxes: Evidence from the RJR Nabisco Leveraged Buyout," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association, vol. 48(2), pages 245-259, June.
    8. James Banks & Richard Blundell & James P. Smith, 2002. "Wealth Portfolios in the UK and the US," NBER Working Papers 9128, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    9. Lang, Mark H. & Shackelford, Douglas A., 2000. "Capitalization of capital gains taxes: evidence from stock price reactions to the 1997 rate reduction," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 76(1), pages 69-85, April.
    10. Dammon, Robert M & Spatt, Chester S & Zhang, Harold H, 2001. "Optimal Consumption and Investment with Capital Gains Taxes," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 14(3), pages 583-616.
    11. Kai A. Konrad, 1991. "Risk Taking and Taxation in Complete Capital Markets," The Geneva Risk and Insurance Review, Palgrave Macmillan;International Association for the Study of Insurance Economics (The Geneva Association), vol. 16(2), pages 167-177, December.
    12. Balcer, Yves & Judd, Kenneth L, 1987. "Effects of Capital Gains Taxation on Life-Cycle Investment and Portfolio Management," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 42(3), pages 743-758, July.
    13. Landsman, Wayne R. & Shackelford, Douglas A., 1995. "The Lock-in Effect of Capital Gains Taxes: Evidence From the RJR Nabisco Leveraged Buyout," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association;National Tax Journal, vol. 48(2), pages 245-259, June.
    14. Constantinides, George M, 1983. "Capital Market Equilibrium with Personal Tax," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 51(3), pages 611-636, May.
    15. Poterba, James M., 1987. "How burdensome are capital gains taxes?: Evidence from the United States," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 33(2), pages 157-172, July.
    16. Assaf Razin & Efraim Sadka (ed.), 1987. "Economic Policy in Theory and Practice," Palgrave Macmillan Books, Palgrave Macmillan, number 978-1-349-18584-9, December.
    17. Warren, Alvin Jr, 2004. "US income taxation of new financial products," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 88(5), pages 899-923, April.
    18. Sandmo, Agnar, 1985. "The effects of taxation on savings and risk taking," Handbook of Public Economics, in: A. J. Auerbach & M. Feldstein (ed.), Handbook of Public Economics, edition 1, volume 1, chapter 5, pages 265-311, Elsevier.
    19. Richard J. Rendleman, Jr. & Douglas A. Shackelford, 2003. "Diversification and the Taxation of Capital Gains and Losses," NBER Working Papers 9674, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    20. A. J. Auerbach & M. Feldstein (ed.), 1985. "Handbook of Public Economics," Handbook of Public Economics, Elsevier, edition 1, volume 1, number 1.
    21. Christiansen, Vidar, 1995. "Normative Aspects of Differential, State-Contingent Capital Income Taxation," Oxford Economic Papers, Oxford University Press, vol. 47(2), pages 286-301, April.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Poterba, James M., 2002. "Taxation, risk-taking, and household portfolio behavior," Handbook of Public Economics, in: A. J. Auerbach & M. Feldstein (ed.), Handbook of Public Economics, edition 1, volume 3, chapter 17, pages 1109-1171, Elsevier.
    2. Klein, Peter, 1999. "The capital gain lock-in effect and equilibrium returns," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 71(3), pages 355-378, March.
    3. Sahm, Marco, 2006. "Essays in Public Economic Theory," Munich Dissertations in Economics 5633, University of Munich, Department of Economics.
    4. Douglas A. Shackelford, 2000. "Stock Market Reaction to Capital Gains Tax Changes: Empirical Evidence from the 1997 and 1998 Tax Acts," NBER Chapters, in: Tax Policy and the Economy, Volume 14, pages 67-92, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    5. Hanlon, Michelle & Heitzman, Shane, 2010. "A review of tax research," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 50(2-3), pages 127-178, December.
    6. Viard, Alan D., 2000. "Dynamic asset pricing effects and incidence of realization-based capital gains taxes," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 46(2), pages 465-488, October.
    7. Jennifer L. Blouin & Jana Smith Raedy & Douglas A. Shackelford, 2003. "Capital Gains Taxes and Equity Trading: Empirical Evidence," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 41(4), pages 611-651, September.
    8. Klein, Peter, 2004. "The capital gain lock-in effect and perfect substitutes," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 88(12), pages 2765-2783, December.
    9. Giampaolo Arachi & Massimo D'Antoni, 2022. "Taxation of capital gains upon accrual: is it really more efficient than realisation?," Fiscal Studies, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 43(1), pages 39-61, March.
    10. Richard J. Rendleman, Jr. & Douglas A. Shackelford, 2003. "Diversification and the Taxation of Capital Gains and Losses," NBER Working Papers 9674, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    11. Hail, Luzi & Sikes, Stephanie & Wang, Clare, 2017. "Cross-country evidence on the relation between capital gains taxes, risk, and expected returns," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 151(C), pages 56-73.
    12. Sinai, Todd & Gyourko, Joseph, 2004. "The asset price incidence of capital gains taxes: evidence from the Taxpayer Relief Act of 1997 and publicly-traded real estate firms," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 88(7-8), pages 1543-1565, July.
    13. Niemann, Rainer & Sureth, Caren, 2009. "Investment effects of capital gains taxation under simultaneous investment and abandonment flexibility," arqus Discussion Papers in Quantitative Tax Research 77, arqus - Arbeitskreis Quantitative Steuerlehre.
    14. Clemens Sialm, 2009. "Tax Changes and Asset Pricing," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 99(4), pages 1356-1383, September.
    15. Marco Sahm, 2009. "Imitating Accrual Taxation On A Realization Basis," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 23(4), pages 734-761, September.
    16. Shoven, John B. & Sialm, Clemens, 2004. "Asset location in tax-deferred and conventional savings accounts," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 88(1-2), pages 23-38, January.
    17. Annika Hegemann & Angela Kunoth & Kristina Rupp & Caren Sureth-Sloane, 2017. "Hold or sell? How capital gains taxation affects holding decisions," Review of Managerial Science, Springer, vol. 11(3), pages 571-603, July.
    18. Hasan, M. Emrul & Klein, Peter, 2022. "The capital gain lock-in effect and seasoned equity offerings," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 138(C).
    19. Hoffmann, Steffen, 2015. "Die steueroptimale Anlegerstrategie bei Wertpapieren und die zugehörige Grenzpreisbestimmung," Manuskripte aus den Instituten für Betriebswirtschaftslehre der Universität Kiel 660, Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel, Institut für Betriebswirtschaftslehre.
    20. Auerbach, Alan J. & Bradford, David F., 2004. "Generalized cash-flow taxation," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 88(5), pages 957-980, April.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eut:journl:v:18:y:2014:i:2:p:47. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: [z.rahimalipour] (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/fecutir.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.