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Taxation and Income Distribution Dynamics in a Neoclassical Growth Model

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  • CECILIA GARCÍA‐PEÑALOSA
  • STEPHEN J. TURNOVSKY

Abstract

We examine how changes in tax policies affect the dynamics of the distributions of wealth and income in a Ramsey model in which agents differ in their initial capital endowments. The endogeneity of the labor supply plays a crucial role, as tax changes that affect hours of work will affect the distribution of wealth and income, reinforcing or offsetting the direct redistributive impact of taxes. We consider different ways of financing government expenditure and find that policies that reduce the labor supply are associated with lower output but also with a more equal distribution of after‐tax income. We illustrate these effects by examining the impact of recent tax changes observed in the United States and in European economies.

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  • Cecilia García‐Peñalosa & Stephen J. Turnovsky, 2011. "Taxation and Income Distribution Dynamics in a Neoclassical Growth Model," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 43(8), pages 1543-1577, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:wly:jmoncb:v:43:y:2011:i:8:p:1543-1577
    DOI: 10.1111/j.1538-4616.2011.00458.x
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    Cited by:

    1. Chen, Shu-Hua, 2020. "Inequality-growth nexus under progressive income taxation," Journal of Macroeconomics, Elsevier, vol. 65(C).
    2. Yoichi Gokan & Stephen J. Turnovsky, 2021. "Wealth and income inequality in a monetary economy," Economic Theory Bulletin, Springer;Society for the Advancement of Economic Theory (SAET), vol. 9(2), pages 225-245, October.
    3. Morimoto, Takaaki & Tabata, Ken, 2020. "Higher Education Subsidy Policy And R&D-Based Growth," Macroeconomic Dynamics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 24(8), pages 2129-2168, December.
    4. Cecilia García-Peñalosa & Stephen J. Turnovsky, 2012. "Income Inequality, Mobility, and the Accumulation of Capital: The Role of Heterogeneous Labor Productivity," Working Papers halshs-00793209, HAL.
    5. Getachew, Yoseph Yilma, 2010. "Public capital and distributional dynamics in a two-sector growth model," Journal of Macroeconomics, Elsevier, vol. 32(2), pages 606-616, June.
    6. Heshmati, Almas & Kim, Jungsuk & Park, Donghyun, 2014. "Fiscal Policy and Inclusive Growth in Advanced Countries: Their Experience and Implications for Asia," ADB Economics Working Paper Series 422, Asian Development Bank.
    7. José Alves, 2018. "A DSGE Model to Evaluate the Macroeconomic Impacts of Taxation," Working Papers REM 2018/62, ISEG - Lisbon School of Economics and Management, REM, Universidade de Lisboa.
    8. Toshiki Tamai, 2015. "Redistributive taxation, wealth distribution, and economic growth," Journal of Economics, Springer, vol. 115(2), pages 133-152, June.
    9. Turnovsky, Stephen J., 2015. "Economic growth and inequality: The role of public investment," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 61(C), pages 204-221.
    10. Sanou Issa, 2021. "Jealousy and Wealth Inequality: The Cases of Heterogeneous Preferences and Elastic Labor Supply," Working Papers hal-03408115, HAL.
    11. García-Peñalosa, Cecilia & Turnovsky, Stephen J., 2015. "Income Inequality, Mobility, And The Accumulation Of Capital," Macroeconomic Dynamics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 19(6), pages 1332-1357, September.
    12. Marcel Aloy & Gilles de Truchis, 2012. "Estimation and Testing for Fractional Cointegration," Working Papers halshs-00793206, HAL.
    13. Gokan, Yoichi & Turnovsky, Stephen J., 2023. "Taylor rules: Consequences for wealth and income inequality," Journal of Macroeconomics, Elsevier, vol. 77(C).
    14. Carneiro, Fernando Moraes & Turnovsky, Stephen J. & Tourinho, Octavio Augusto Fontes, 2022. "Economic growth and inequality tradeoffs under progressive taxation," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 143(C).
    15. Sean Higgins & Claudiney Pereira, 2013. "The effects of Brazil's high taxation and social spending on the distribution of household income," Commitment to Equity (CEQ) Working Paper Series 07, Tulane University, Department of Economics, revised May 2013.
    16. João Tovar Jalles & Georgios Karras, 2023. "Tax Progressivity and Output: Evidence from OECD countries," Working Papers REM 2023/0293, ISEG - Lisbon School of Economics and Management, REM, Universidade de Lisboa.
    17. Getachew, Yoseph Y. & Turnovsky, Stephen J., 2020. "Redistribution, inequality, and efficiency with credit constraints: Implications for South Africa," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 93(C), pages 259-277.
    18. Heshmati, Almas & Kim, Jungsuk, 2014. "A Survey of the Role of Fiscal Policy in Addressing Income Inequality, Poverty Reduction and Inclusive Growth," IZA Discussion Papers 8119, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    19. Chatterjee, Santanu & Turnovsky, Stephen J., 2012. "Infrastructure and inequality," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 56(8), pages 1730-1745.
    20. Juin-Jen Chang & Jang-Ting Guo & Wei-Neng Wang, 2021. "On Government Spending and Income Inequality under Monopolistic Competition," Working Papers 202103, University of California at Riverside, Department of Economics.
    21. Sondes Kahouli & Xavier Pautrel, 2020. "Residential and Industrial Energy Efficiency Improvement: A Dynamic General Equilibrium Analysis of the Rebound Effect," Working Papers 2020.28, Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei.
    22. Sean Higgins & Claudiney Pereira, 2013. "The effects of Brazil's high taxation and social spending on the distribution of household income," Commitment to Equity (CEQ) Working Paper Series 1307, Tulane University, Department of Economics, revised May 2013.
    23. Stephen J. Turnovsky, 2013. "The relationship between economic growth and inequality," New Zealand Economic Papers, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 47(2), pages 113-139, August.
    24. Leonhard Frerick & Georg Müller-Fürstenberger & Martin Schmidt & Max Späth, 2022. "Complementarity Modeling of a Ramsey-Type Equilibrium Problem with Heterogeneous Agents," Computational Economics, Springer;Society for Computational Economics, vol. 60(3), pages 1135-1154, October.
    25. Almas Heshmati & Jungsuk Kim & Jacob Wood, 2019. "A Survey of Inclusive Growth Policy," Economies, MDPI, vol. 7(3), pages 1-18, July.

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