IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/nbr/nberwo/1060.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Measuring the Average Marginal Tax Rate from the Individual Income Tax

Author

Listed:
  • Robert J. Barro
  • Chaipat Sahasakul

Abstract

The economic effects of taxation depend on the configuration of marginal tax rates. We consider here the appropriate measure of a marginal tax rate for the federal individual income tax, which has a graduated-rate structure and allows for numerous legal and illegal deductions from total income.Our conclusion is that the explicit marginal rate from the tax schedule is the right concept for many purposes.Hence, we construct approximately weighted averages of these marginal tax rates for 1916-80. When weighted by adjusted gross income, the arithmetic average of marginal tax rates is 5% in 1920, 2%in 1930, 6% in 1940, 20% in 1950, 23% in 1960, 24% in 1970, and 30% in 1980.We also discuss the dispersion of marginal tax rates, as well as the behavior of average tax rates and deductions from taxable income. One noteworthy result concerns the fraction of adjusted gross income that accrues to families that face a marginal tax rate of at least 35%. This fraction quadruples from 1964 to 1980.

Suggested Citation

  • Robert J. Barro & Chaipat Sahasakul, 1983. "Measuring the Average Marginal Tax Rate from the Individual Income Tax," NBER Working Papers 1060, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    • Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:1060
    Note: EFG
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.nber.org/papers/w1060.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Joines, Douglas H, 1981. "Estimates of Effective Marginal Tax Rates on Factor Incomes," The Journal of Business, University of Chicago Press, vol. 54(2), pages 191-226, April.
    2. Miller, Merton H. & Scholes, Myron S., 1978. "Dividends and taxes," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 6(4), pages 333-364, December.
    3. Aris Protopapadakis, "undated". "Some Indirect Evidence on Effective Capital Gains Tax Rates," Rodney L. White Center for Financial Research Working Papers 19-82, Wharton School Rodney L. White Center for Financial Research.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Huang-Meier, Winifred & Freeman, Mark C., 2015. "Aggregate dividends and consumption smoothing," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 42(C), pages 324-335.
    2. Sven-Olov Daunfeldt & Carina Selander & Magnus Wikstrom, 2009. "Taxation, Dividend Payments and Ex-Day Price-Changes," Multinational Finance Journal, Multinational Finance Journal, vol. 13(1-2), pages 135-154, March-Jun.
    3. Thomas McCluskey & Aoife Broderick & Amanda Boyle & Bruce Burton & David Power, 2010. "Evidence on Irish financial analysts' and fund managers' views about dividends," Qualitative Research in Financial Markets, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 2(2), pages 80-99, June.
    4. Clemens Sialm, 2009. "Tax Changes and Asset Pricing," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 99(4), pages 1356-1383, September.
    5. Poterba, James M & Summers, Lawrence H, 1984. "New Evidence that Taxes Affect the Valuation of Dividends," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 39(5), pages 1397-1415, December.
    6. Rodrigo Suescún M., 1995. "Growth, Welfare Costs and Aggregate Fluctuations in Economies with Monetary Taxation," Borradores de Economia 036, Banco de la Republica de Colombia.
    7. Roberto Ellery Jr. & Victor Gomes, 2014. "Fiscal Policy, Supply Shocks and Economic Expansion in Brazil from 2003 to 2007," Brazilian Business Review, Fucape Business School, vol. 11(3), pages 53-75, June.
    8. Jakub Kwiatkowski, 2017. "R&D activity and dividend policy of companies listed on the Warsaw Stock Exchange," Working Papers of Economics of European Integration Division 1702, The Univeristy of Gdansk, Faculty of Economics, Economics of European Integration Division.
    9. Matthias Doepke & Moshe Hazan & Yishay D. Maoz, 2015. "The Baby Boom and World War II: A Macroeconomic Analysis," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 82(3), pages 1031-1073.
    10. Natalya Delcoure & Ross Dickens, 2004. "REIT and REOC Systematic Risk Sensitivity," Journal of Real Estate Research, American Real Estate Society, vol. 26(3), pages 237-254.
    11. Hakkio, Craig S. & Rush, Mark & Schmidt, Timothy J., 1996. "The marginal income tax rate schedule from 1930 to 1990," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 38(1), pages 117-138, August.
    12. Nutahara, Kengo, 2015. "Laffer curves in Japan," Journal of the Japanese and International Economies, Elsevier, vol. 36(C), pages 56-72.
    13. Lee, King Fuei, 2018. "Peer Effects on Firm Dividend Policies in Taiwan," MPRA Paper 103102, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    14. Robert S. Harris & John J. Pringle, 1983. "Implications Of Miller'S Argument For Capital Budgeting," Journal of Financial Research, Southern Finance Association;Southwestern Finance Association, vol. 6(1), pages 13-23, March.
    15. Holmen, Martin & Knopf, John D. & Peterson, Stefan, 2008. "Inside shareholders' effective tax rates and dividends," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 32(9), pages 1860-1869, September.
    16. Randall Morck, 2003. "Why Some Double Taxation Might Make Sense: The Special Case of Inter-corporate Dividends," NBER Working Papers 9651, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    17. Bridgman, Benjamin, 2018. "Is Labor'S Loss Capital'S Gain? Gross Versus Net Labor Shares," Macroeconomic Dynamics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 22(8), pages 2070-2087, December.
    18. Alexander Meyer-Gohde, 2017. "Social Security Contributions and the Business Cycle," SFB 649 Discussion Papers SFB649DP2017-018, Sonderforschungsbereich 649, Humboldt University, Berlin, Germany.
    19. Sabur Mollah, 2011. "Do emerging market firms follow different dividend policies?," Studies in Economics and Finance, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 28(2), pages 118-135, June.
    20. Fliers, Philip T., 2019. "What is the relation between financial flexibility and dividend smoothing?," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 92(C), pages 98-111.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:1060. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    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 CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc 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 RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: the person in charge (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/nberrus.html .

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

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.