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Evidence on the Insurance Effect of Marginal Income Taxes

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  • Michaelides, Alexander
  • Grant, Charles
  • Padula, Mario
  • Koulovatianos, Christos

Abstract

Marginal income taxes may have an insurance effect by decreasing the effective fluctuations of after-tax individual income. By compressing the idiosyncratic component of personal income fluctuations, higher marginal taxes should be negatively correlated with the dispersion of consumption across households, a necessary implication of an insurance effect of taxation. Our study empirically examines this negative correlation, exploiting the ample variation of state taxes across US states. We show that taxes are negatively correlated with the consumption dispersion of the within-state distribution of non-durable consumption and that this correlation is robust.

Suggested Citation

  • Michaelides, Alexander & Grant, Charles & Padula, Mario & Koulovatianos, Christos, 2008. "Evidence on the Insurance Effect of Marginal Income Taxes," CEPR Discussion Papers 6710, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    • Handle: RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:6710
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    Cited by:

    1. Charles Grant & Winfried Koeniger, 2009. "Redistributive Taxation and Personal Bankruptcy in U.S. States," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 52(3), pages 445-467, August.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Consumption insurance; Tax distortions; Undiversifiable earnings risk;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • E21 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Consumption, Saving, Production, Employment, and Investment - - - Consumption; Saving; Wealth
    • H20 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - General
    • H31 - Public Economics - - Fiscal Policies and Behavior of Economic Agents - - - Household

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