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Tax Reform and the Demand for Debt

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  • Erik Fjærli

Abstract

This article examines the impact on household borrowing from a tax reform that implied a change from progressive to constant marginal tax rates on interest deductions. We use three alternative empirical methods to address the problem of endogenous explanatory variables, which arises when the marginal tax rate itself is a function of the amount of debt: The first approach uses instrumental variables to examine the significance of the marginal tax rate directly and produces mixed results. In the second approach we use tobit regressions based on repeated cross-sectional data to examine the correspondence between debt and income and find that the households' amount of debt were strongly and positively related to income before the tax reform and significantly more income-dependent under progressive tax rates than under the constant tax rate. Finally, using panel data covering the last year prior to the reform and the first year after, we find that the change in a household's marginal tax rate had a significant impact on the change in its amount of debt.

Suggested Citation

  • Erik Fjærli, 2004. "Tax Reform and the Demand for Debt," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 11(4), pages 435-467, August.
  • Handle: RePEc:kap:itaxpf:v:11:y:2004:i:4:p:435-467
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    Cited by:

    1. Jukka Pirttilä & Håkan Selin, 2006. "How Successful is the Dual Income Tax? Evidence from the Finnish Tax Reform of 1993," Working Papers 223, Työn ja talouden tutkimus LABORE, The Labour Institute for Economic Research LABORE.
    2. Annette Alstadsæter & Knut Reidar Wangen, 2008. "Corporations’ Choice of Tax Regime when Transition Costs are Small and Income Shifting Potential is Large," CESifo Working Paper Series 2392, CESifo.
    3. Saarimaa, Tuukka, 2005. "Taxation and Debt Financing of Home Acquisition: Evidence from the Finnish 1993 Tax Reform," Discussion Papers 366, VATT Institute for Economic Research.
    4. Annette Alstadsaeter, 2007. "The Achilles Heel of the Dual Income Tax: The Norwegian Case," Finnish Economic Papers, Finnish Economic Association, vol. 20(1), pages 5-22, Spring.

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