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Consumption Taxes and Redistribution

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Author Info
Correia, Maria Isabel Horta
Abstract

It is relatively well known that the introduction of consumption taxation as an alternative in the tax code, and as the main source of government revenues, leads to a more efficient tax system. However the conventional wisdom is that the change from the actual tax code, based on taxation of capital and labour income to this consumption-based system, has undesirable distributional consequences. In this work a very simple method is developed to argue that the converse is the most reasonable outcome from that fundamental tax reform. The main difference in relation to the literature comes from the assumed source of household heterogeneity. Additionally it is shown that the inclusion of a tax on consumption allows for redistributive policies with no costs in terms of efficiency.

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Paper provided by C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers in its series CEPR Discussion Papers with number 5280.

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Date of creation: Oct 2005
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Handle: RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:5280

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Related research
Keywords: consumption taxes; equity; fundamental tax reform; heterogeneous agents;

Find related papers by JEL classification:
D63 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics - - - Equity, Justice, Inequality, and Other Normative Criteria and Measurement
E62 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Macroeconomic Policy, Macroeconomic Aspects of Public Finance, and General Outlook - - - Fiscal Policy
H20 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - General

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  1. William M. Gentry & R. Glenn Hubbard, 1997. "Distributional Implications of Introducing a Broad-Based Consumption Tax," NBER Chapters, in: Tax Policy and the Economy, Volume 11, pages 1-48 National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  2. Ventura, Gustavo, 1999. "Flat tax reform: A quantitative exploration1," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 23(9-10), pages 1425-1458, September. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  3. Greenwood, Jeremy & Hercowitz, Zvi & Huffman, Gregory W, 1988. "Investment, Capacity Utilization, and the Real Business Cycle," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 78(3), pages 402-17, June. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  4. Krusell, Per & Quadrini, Vincenzo & Rios-Rull, Jose-Victor, 1996. "Are consumption taxes really better than income taxes?," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 37(3), pages 475-503, June. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  5. Correia, Maria Isabel Horta & Nicolini, Juan Pablo & Teles, Pedro, 2003. "Optimal Fiscal and Monetary Policy: Equivalence Results," CEPR Discussion Papers 3730, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  6. Jorgenson, Dale W & Wilcoxen, Peter J, 1997. "The Long-Run Dynamics of Fundamental Tax Reform," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 87(2), pages 126-32, May. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  7. Santiago Budria Rodriguez & Javier Diaz-Gimenez & Vincenzo Quadrini & Jose-Victor Rior-Rull, 2002. "Updated facts on the U.S. distributions of earnings, income, and wealth," Quarterly Review, Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, issue Sum, pages 2-35. [Downloadable!]
  8. Daniel R. Feenberg & Andrew W. Mitrusi & James M. Poterba, 1997. "Distributional Effects of Adopting a National Retail Sales Tax," NBER Working Papers 5885, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  9. ColemanII, Wilbur John, 2000. "Welfare and optimum dynamic taxation of consumption and income," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 76(1), pages 1-39, April. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  10. Helpman, Elhanan & Sadka, Efraim, 1982. "Consumption versus Wage Taxation," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, MIT Press, vol. 97(2), pages 363-72, May. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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This page was last updated on 2009-11-25.


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