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Economic Efficiency in Recent Tax Reform History: Policy Reversals or Consistent Improvements?

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Author Info
Don Fullerton
James B. Mackie

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Abstract

The Economic Recovery Tax Act of 1981 reduced personal marginal tax rates and provided significant business tax breaks. Subsequent changes through 1985 cut back on business allowances. The Tax Reform Act of 1986 reduced marginal rates again, but added significantly to business taxes. Was there any unifying theme to these tax changes, or do they represent frequent changes in course for tax policy? This paper uses a general equilibrium model capable of second- best analysis to investigate the net effects on efficiency of each of these changes in capital income taxation. Under the new view that dividend taxes are unimportant investment disincentives, there is no set of other parameters in the model for which these changes generate improvements in efficiency. Under the old view that dividend taxes are important, however, these changes all increase efficiency for a wide range of values for other parameters in the model.

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Paper provided by National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc in its series NBER Working Papers with number 2593.

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Date of creation: Aug 1989
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Publication status: published as National Tax Journal, Vol. 42, No. 1, pp 1-13, (March 1989).
Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:2593

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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. Boskin, Michael J, 1978. "Taxation, Saving, and the Rate of Interest," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 86(2), pages S3-27, April. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  2. Alan J. Auerbach, 1983. "Corporate Taxation in the United States," Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, Economic Studies Program, The Brookings Institution, vol. 14(1983-2), pages 451-514. [Downloadable!]
  3. Auerbach, Alan J, 1986. "The Dynamic Effects of Tax Law Asymmetries," Review of Economic Studies, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 53(2), pages 205-25, April. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  4. Joseph E. Stiglitz, 1982. "Utilitarianism and Horizontal Equity: The Case for Random Taxation," NBER Working Papers 0694, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  5. Alan J. Auerbach, 1984. "Taxes, Firm Financial Policy and the Cost of Capital: An Empirical Analysis," NBER Working Papers 0955, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  6. Bradford, David F., 1981. "The incidence and allocation effects of a tax on corporate distributions," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 15(1), pages 1-22, February. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  7. Don Fullerton & Yolanda K. Henderson, 1989. "A Disaggregate Equilibrium Model of the Tax Distortions Among Assets, Sectors, and Industries," NBER Working Papers 1905, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  8. Alm, James, 1988. "Uncertain Tax Policies, Individual Behavior, and Welfare," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 78(1), pages 237-45, March. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  9. Roger H. Gordon & James R. Hines Jr. & Lawrence H. Summers, 1987. "Notes on the Tax Treatment of Structures," NBER Working Papers 1896, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  10. Fullerton, Don & Henderson, Yolanda Kodrzycki, 1985. "Long-run Effects of the Accelerated Cost Recovery System," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 67(3), pages 363-72, August. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  11. Chang, F. R. & Wildasin, D. E., 1986. "Randomization of commodity taxes : An expenditure minimization approach," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 31(3), pages 329-345, December. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  12. Poterba, James M. & Summers, Lawrence H., 1983. "Dividend taxes, corporate investment, and `Q'," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 22(2), pages 135-167, November. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  13. Auerbach, Alan J, 1979. "Wealth Maximization and the Cost of Capital," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, MIT Press, vol. 93(3), pages 433-46, August. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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(explanations, 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. Don Fullerton, 1994. "Inputs to Tax Policymaking: The Supply Side, the Deficit, and the Level Playing Field," NBER Working Papers 3507, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  2. Don Fullerton & Marios Karayannis, 1993. "Tax Evasion and the Allocation of Capital," NBER Working Papers 4581, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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