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Capital Taxation During the U.S. Great Depression

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  • Ellen R. McGrattan

Abstract

Previous studies of the U.S. Great Depression find that increased government spending and taxation contributed little to either the dramatic downturn or the slow recovery. These studies include only one type of capital taxation: a business profits tax. The contribution is much greater when the analysis includes other types of capital taxes. A general equilibrium model extended to include taxes on dividends, property, capital stock, excess profits, and undistributed profits predicts patterns of output, investment, and hours worked that are more like those in the 1930s than found in earlier studies. The greatest effects come from the increased taxes on corporate dividends and undistributed profits. JEL Codes: E13, E32, H25 Copyright 2012, Oxford University Press.

Suggested Citation

  • Ellen R. McGrattan, 2012. "Capital Taxation During the U.S. Great Depression," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 127(3), pages 1515-1550.
    • Handle: RePEc:oup:qjecon:v:127:y:2012:i:3:p:1515-1550
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    Cited by:

    1. Troy Davig & Andrew Foerster, 2019. "Uncertainty and Fiscal Cliffs," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 51(7), pages 1857-1887, October.
    2. Anagnostopoulos, Alexis & Cárceles-Poveda, Eva & Lin, Danmo, 2012. "Dividend and capital gains taxation under incomplete markets," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 59(7), pages 599-611.
    3. Daphne Chen & Shi Qi & Don Schlagenhauf, 2018. "Corporate Income Tax, Legal Form of Organization, and Employment," American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics, American Economic Association, vol. 10(4), pages 270-304, October.
    4. Leal-Ordoñez Julio C. & Mandujano Javier, 2019. "Fear of taxes," Working Papers 2019-09, Banco de México.
    5. Ellen R. McGrattan, 2015. "Taxing Wealth," Economic Policy Paper 15-4, Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis.
    6. Nancy Stokey, 2016. "Wait-and See: Investment Options under Policy Uncertainty," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 21, pages 246-265, July.
    7. Paul Klein & Gustavo Ventura, 2018. "Taxation, Expenditures and the Irish Miracle," 2018 Meeting Papers 282, Society for Economic Dynamics.
    8. Kydland, Finn E. & Zarazaga, Carlos E.J.M., 2016. "Fiscal sentiment and the weak recovery from the Great Recession: A quantitative exploration," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 79(C), pages 109-125.
    9. Wright, Randall & Xiao, Sylvia Xiaolin & Zhu, Yu, 2018. "Frictional capital reallocation I: Ex ante heterogeneity," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 89(C), pages 100-116.
    10. Rodrigo A. Cerda & José Tomás Valente, 2022. "The role of capital taxation on the business cycle: the case of Chile, 1960–2019," Economic Change and Restructuring, Springer, vol. 55(1), pages 83-108, February.
    11. Roulleau-Pasdeloup, Jordan, 2023. "Analyzing Linear DSGE models: the Method of Undetermined Markov States," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 151(C).
    12. Jordan Roulleau-Pasdeloup & Anastasia Zhutova, 2015. "Labor Market Policies and the "Missing Deflation" Puzzle: Lessons from Hoover Policies during the U.S Great Depression," Cahiers de Recherches Economiques du Département d'économie 15.05, Université de Lausanne, Faculté des HEC, Département d’économie.
    13. Prescott, E.C., 2016. "RBC Methodology and the Development of Aggregate Economic Theory," Handbook of Macroeconomics, in: J. B. Taylor & Harald Uhlig (ed.), Handbook of Macroeconomics, edition 1, volume 2, chapter 0, pages 1759-1787, Elsevier.
    14. Born, Benjamin & Peter, Alexandra & Pfeifer, Johannes, 2013. "Fiscal news and macroeconomic volatility," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 37(12), pages 2582-2601.
    15. Ferraro, Domenico & Ghazi, Soroush & Peretto, Pietro F., 2020. "Implications of tax policy for innovation and aggregate productivity growth," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 130(C).
    16. Jordan Roulleau-Pasdeloup, 2022. "Analyzing Linear DSGE models: the Method of Undetermined Markov States," Papers 2209.05081, arXiv.org, revised Feb 2023.
    17. Jiang, Lunan, 2018. "Dividend taxes and investment during the U.S. Great Depression," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 167(C), pages 147-151.
    18. Solis-Garcia, Mario, 2021. "A (pedagogical) note on the log-linearization of functions of several variables," International Review of Economics Education, Elsevier, vol. 37(C).
    19. Hansen, G.D. & Ohanian, L.E., 2016. "Neoclassical Models in Macroeconomics," Handbook of Macroeconomics, in: J. B. Taylor & Harald Uhlig (ed.), Handbook of Macroeconomics, edition 1, volume 2, chapter 0, pages 2043-2130, Elsevier.

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    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • E13 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - General Aggregative Models - - - Neoclassical
    • E32 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Prices, Business Fluctuations, and Cycles - - - Business Fluctuations; Cycles
    • H25 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Business Taxes and Subsidies

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