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The Design of a Consumption Tax under Capital Risk

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Author Info
Syed M. Ahsan
Peter Tsigaris

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Abstract

This paper focuses on the design of a consumption tax in a world of capital risk. The certainty literature discusses two standard options, namely the cash flow method and the pre-payment method (ie, the wage tax), and finds the two approaches to be equivalent. Models that consider capital risk (via asset choice) reach different conclusions. This discrepancy arises out of different choice of the social discount rate. In light of the failure of the discount rate argument to resolve the issue at hand, we explore the market certainty equivalence of risky government revenue. We let revenue risks stay in the private sector, and examine the market value of the size of the feasible transfer (eg, in the form of a public good) back to households. We reach three broad conclusions. First, we find that in two important settings, namely where households do not diversify fully, and where there is some intergenerational risk sharing (eg, through public debt management), the wage tax cannot be construed to be a valid pre-payment alternative to the cash flow tax. Efficient risk allocation would call for a cash-flow tax, or one that includes future capital gains as well as wages in the tax base. Secondly, it is seen that in each of these scenarios, there is room for welfare gain in the case of a consumption tax instead of the conventionally "equivalent" wage tax. Finally, a major policy implication is that, in order to be practicable, a consumption tax would have to be implemented via registered savings accounts much in the fashion of the Canadian RRSP program rather than through the pre-payment route.

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Paper provided by Economic Policy Research Unit (EPRU), University of Copenhagen. Department of Economics in its series EPRU Working Paper Series with number 97-11.

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Handle: RePEc:kud:epruwp:97-11

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References listed on IDEAS
Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:
  1. Barro, Robert J, 1979. "On the Determination of the Public Debt," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 87(5), pages 940-71, October. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  2. Summers, Lawrence H, 1981. "Capital Taxation and Accumulation in a Life Cycle Growth Model," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 71(4), pages 533-44, September. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  3. Gordon, Roger H. & Varian, Hal R., 1988. "Intergenerational risk sharing," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 37(2), pages 185-202, November. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  4. Alan J. Auerbach, 1991. "Retrospective Capital Gains Taxation," NBER Working Papers 2792, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  5. Wolfram Richter, 1993. "Intergenerational risk sharing and social security in an economy with land," Journal of Economics, Springer, vol. 7(1), pages 91-103, December. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  6. Laurence Kotlikoff, 1993. "From deficit delusion to the Fiscal Balance Rule: Looking for an economically meaningful way to assess fiscal policy," Journal of Economics, Springer, vol. 7(1), pages 17-41, December. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  7. Sandmo, Agnar, 1972. "Discount Rates for Public Investment under Uncertainty," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 13(2), pages 287-302, June. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  8. Ahsan, Syed M., 1989. "Choice of tax base under uncertainty : Consumption or income?," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 40(1), pages 99-134, October. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  9. Robert C. Merton, 1983. "On the Role of Social Security as a Means for Efficient Risk Sharing in an Economy Where Human Capital Is Not Tradable," NBER Chapters, in: Financial Aspects of the United States Pension System, pages 325-358 National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!]
  10. Jeremy I. Bulow & Lawrence H. Summers, 1984. "The Taxation of Risky Assets," NBER Working Papers 0897, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  11. Gordon, Roger H, 1985. "Taxation of Corporate Capital Income: Tax Revenues versus Tax Distortions," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, MIT Press, vol. 100(1), pages 1-27, February.
  12. Zodrow, George R., 1995. "Taxation, uncertainty and the choice of a consumption tax base," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 58(2), pages 257-265, October. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  13. Blume, Marshall E & Friend, Irwin, 1975. "The Asset Structure of Individual Portfolios and Some Implications for Utility Functions," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 30(2), pages 585-603, May. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  14. Arrow, Kenneth J & Lind, Robert C, 1970. "Uncertainty and the Evaluation of Public Investment Decisions," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 60(3), pages 364-78, June.
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  1. Paolo M. Panteghini, 2009. "On the Equivalence between Labor and Consumption Taxation," Working Papers 0904, University of Brescia, Department of Economics. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  2. Wolfgang Eggert & Martin Kolmar, . "Contests with Size Effects," EPRU Working Paper Series 02-04, Economic Policy Research Unit (EPRU), University of Copenhagen. Department of Economics. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  3. Syed Ahsan & Panagiotis Tsigaris, 2003. "Choice of Tax Base Revisited: Cash Flow vs. Prepayment Approaches to Consumption Taxation," CESifo Working Paper Series CESifo Working Paper No. , CESifo Group Munich. [Downloadable!]
  4. Syed M. Ahsan & Panagiotis Tsigaris, 2008. "The Efficiency Loss of Capital Income Taxation under Imperfect Loss Offset Provisions," CESifo Working Paper Series CESifo Working Paper No. , CESifo Group Munich. [Downloadable!]
  5. Wolfgang Eggert & Laszlo Goerke, . "Fiscal Policy, Economic Integration and Unemployment," EPRU Working Paper Series 02-05, Economic Policy Research Unit (EPRU), University of Copenhagen. Department of Economics. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  6. Sinn, Hans-Werner, 1999. "Inflation and Welfare: Comment on Robert Lucas," CESifo Working Paper Series CESifo Working Paper No. , CESifo Group Munich. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  7. Wolfgang Eggert & Martin Kolmar, . "Information Sharing, Multiple Nash Equilibria, and Asymmetric Capital-Tax Competition," EPRU Working Paper Series 02-01, Economic Policy Research Unit (EPRU), University of Copenhagen. Department of Economics. [Downloadable!]
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