Advanced Search
MyIDEAS: Login

Taxation and Domestic Free Trade

Contents:

Author Info

  • Johnsson, Richard

    () (The Ratio Institute)

Abstract

In this paper it is argued that the domestic division of labor and trade is organized according to the same principle as the international division of labor and trade – the Ricardian comparative advantages. After all, the ultimate source of these comparative advantages is the individual. The comparative advantages of individuals then lend themselves to groups of people, companies, regions and countries. It is these that make it worthwhile for people to cooperate on any larger scale at all; we all rely on them and they imply that there is room for everyone in society. But just as tariffs ruin the international division of labor, taxes and similar domestic government interventionism destroy the domestic division of labor among people. This is illustrated by means of the ‘division of labor condition’, where taxes enter as a possible restriction to trade, thus creating a Darwinist society of the survival of the fittest. The least productive individuals and those who face the highest barriers to trade run the risk of ending up on the outskirts of society. The more productive ones will run the risk of overreaching as they are forced to perform more and more tasks themselves. The result is not only more home labor and more black markets, but also real barter and situations where nothing gets done at all. To restore the division of labor, and to make room for everyone who wants to participate in it, it is argued that removing barriers to domestic trade is the only possible option.

Download Info

If you experience problems downloading a file, check if you have the proper application to view it first. In case of further problems read the IDEAS help page. Note that these files are not on the IDEAS site. Please be patient as the files may be large.
File URL: http://www.ratio.se/pdf/wp/rj_domestic.pdf
Our checks indicate that this address may not be valid because: 404 Not Found. If this is indeed the case, please notify (Martin Korpi)
Download Restriction: no

Bibliographic Info

Paper provided by The Ratio Institute in its series Ratio Working Papers with number 40.

as in new window
Length: 16 pages
Date of creation: 29 Apr 2004
Date of revision: 07 Jun 2004
Publication status: Published in Skatter & välfärd, Karlson, Nils, Johansson, Dan, Johnsson, Richard (eds.), 2004, pages 140-164, Ratio.
Handle: RePEc:hhs:ratioi:0040

Note: The publication refers to a Swedish version of the paper.
Contact details of provider:
Postal: The Ratio Institute, P.O. Box 5095, SE-102 42 Stockholm, Sweden
Phone: 08-441 59 00
Fax: 08-441 59 29
Email:
Web page: http://www.ratio.se/
More information through EDIRC

Related research

Keywords: Division of labor; Comparative Advantage; Trade; Productivity; Growth; Taxes; Unemployment; Household Labor; Informal economy;

Find related papers by JEL classification:

References

No references listed on IDEAS
You can help add them by filling out this form.

Citations

Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
as in new window

Cited by:
  1. Johnsson, Richard, 2004. "Economic Freedom in Sweden 1950-2002," Ratio Working Papers 55, The Ratio Institute.

Lists

This item is featured on the following reading lists or Wikipedia pages:
  1. Tax in Wikipedia (English)

Statistics

Access and download statistics

Corrections

When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:hhs:ratioi:0040

For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: (Martin Korpi).

If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

If references are entirely missing, you can add them using this form.

If the full references list an item that is present in RePEc, but the system did not link to it, you can help with this form.

If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.