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Tax Deductions and the Marginal Welfare Cost of Taxation

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Ian Parry ()

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Abstract

Recent work emphasizes the efficiency costs of tax deductions that distort the pattern of household spending. Using evidence on the sensitivity of taxable income to tax rates, this work suggests that the marginal welfare cost (MWC) of income taxes in the United States could be dramatically higher because of tax deductions, and might exceed unity. This paper develops an alternative approach for assessing the MWC using evidence on underlying parameters (e.g., labor supply elasticities, the demand elasticity for tax-favored goods). A MWC of around 0.3 to 0.5 seems more consistent with these parameter values, though this estimate is still significantly higher because of tax deductions. Copyright Kluwer Academic Publishers 2002

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File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1023/A:1020992803400
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Publisher Info
Article provided by Springer in its journal International Tax and Public Finance.

Volume (Year): 9 (2002)
Issue (Month): 5 (September)
Pages: 531-552
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Handle: RePEc:kap:itaxpf:v:9:y:2002:i:5:p:531-552

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Related research
Keywords: tax deductions; marginal welfare cost; income taxes; consumption distortions;

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References listed on IDEAS
Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:
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  2. Hanushek, Eric A & Quigley, John M, 1980. "What Is the Price Elasticity of Housing Demand?," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 62(3), pages 449-54, August. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  3. Sam Allgood & Arthur Snow, 1998. "The Marginal Cost of Raising Tax Revenue and Redistributing Income," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 106(6), pages 1246-1273, December. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  4. Mayshar, Joram, 1991. "On Measuring the Marginal Cost of Funds Analytically," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 81(5), pages 1329-35, December. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  5. Ian Parry, 2001. "The Costs of Restrictive Trade Policies in the Presence of Factor Tax Distortions," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer, vol. 8(2), pages 147-170, March. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  6. Mervyn A. King, 1980. "An econometric model of tenure choice and demand for housing as a joint decision," NBER Chapters, in: Econometric Studies in Public Finance, pages 137-159 National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
  7. Martin Feldstein, 1999. "Tax Avoidance And The Deadweight Loss Of The Income Tax," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 81(4), pages 674-680, November. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  8. Ballard, Charles L & Shoven, John B & Whalley, John, 1985. "General Equilibrium Computations of the Marginal Welfare Costs of Taxes in the United States," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 75(1), pages 128-38, March. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  9. Fullerton, Don, 1991. "Reconciling Recent Estimates of the Marginal Welfare Cost of Taxation," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 81(1), pages 302-08, March. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  11. Wildasin, David E, 1984. "On Public Good Provision with Distortionary Taxation," Economic Inquiry, Oxford University Press, vol. 22(2), pages 227-43, April.
  12. Auten, Gerald & Sieg, Holger & Clotfelter, Charles, 1999. "Charitable Giving and Income Taxation in a Life-Cycle Model: An Analysis of Panel Data," Working Papers 99-03, Duke University, Department of Economics.
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  16. Snow, Arthur & Warren, Ronald Jr., 1996. "The marginal welfare cost of public funds: Theory and estimates," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 61(2), pages 289-305, August. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  17. Dahlby, Bev, 1998. "Progressive taxation and the social marginal cost of public funds," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 67(1), pages 105-122, January. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  20. Rapaport, Carol, 1997. "Housing Demand and Community Choice: An Empirical Analysis," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 42(2), pages 243-260, September. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  21. Stuart, Charles E, 1984. "Welfare Costs per Dollar of Additional Tax Revenue in the United States," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 74(3), pages 352-62, June. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  23. Judd, Kenneth L, 1987. "The Welfare Cost of Factor Taxation in a Perfect-Foresight Model," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 95(4), pages 675-709, August. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  24. Triest, Robert K, 1990. "The Relationship between the Marginal Cost of Public Funds and Marginal Excess Burden," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 80(3), pages 557-66, June. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  25. Browning, Edgar K., 1994. "The non-tax wedge," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 53(3), pages 419-433, March. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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Cited by:
(explanations, Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.)

  1. Parry, Ian & Toman, Michael, 2000. "Early Emissions Reduction Programs: An Application to CO2 Policy," Discussion Papers dp-00-26, Resources For the Future. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  2. Martin, Will & Anderson, James E., 2005. "Costs of taxation and the benefits of public goods : the role of income effects," Policy Research Working Paper Series 3700, The World Bank. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  3. Ian Parry, 2003. "On the Costs of Excise Taxes and Income Taxes in the UK," Asia-Pacific Financial Markets, Springer, vol. 10(3), pages 281-304, May. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  4. Åsa Hansson, 2007. "Taxpayers' responsiveness to tax rate changes and implications for the cost of taxation in Sweden," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer, vol. 14(5), pages 563-582, October. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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