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Inflation and the User Cost of Capital: Does Inflation Still Matter?

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Author Info
Darrel Cohen
Kevin A. Hassett
R. Glenn Hubbard

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Abstract

In the late 1970s, many economists argued that the deleterious effects of inflation on the user cost of capital for U.S. firms were large. Since that time, the tax code has changed, the level of inflation has dropped significantly, and the of investment has evolved considerably. In this paper, we demonstrate that the net effect of these changes has--under reasonable assumptions--not relegated inflation to the sidelines. Indeed, we conclude that: (1) inflation, even at its relatively low current rates, continues to increase the user cost of capital significantly; (2) the marginal gain in investment in response to a percentage-point reduction in inflation is larger for lower levels of inflation; (3) the beneficial effects for steady-state consumption of lowering inflation even further than has been achieved to date would likely be significant; and (4) inflation has only a small impact on intratemporal distortion in the allocation of capital within the domestic business sector. We also show that the magnitude of the inflation effect on the user cost of capital is likely much smaller in open economies.

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Paper provided by National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc in its series NBER Working Papers with number 6046.

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Date of creation: Aug 1999
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Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:6046

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Find related papers by JEL classification:
E5 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Monetary Policy, Central Banking, and the Supply of Money and Credit
E6 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Macroeconomic Policy, Macroeconomic Aspects of Public Finance, and General Outlook

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  1. Martin Feldstein, 1982. "Inflation, Tax Rules, and Investment: Some Econometric Evidence," NBER Working Papers 0577, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  2. Mervyn A. King & Don Fullerton, 1983. "The Taxation of Income from Capital: A Comparative Study of the U.S., U.K., Sweden, and West Germany--The Theoretical Framework--," NBER Working Papers 1058, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  3. Kevin A. Hassett & R. Glenn Hubbard, 1998. "Tax Policy and Investment," NBER Working Papers 5683, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  4. Feldstein, Martin S, 1976. "Inflation, Income Taxes, and the Rate of Interest: A Theoretical Analysis," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 66(5), pages 809-20, December. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  5. Martin Feldstein, 1980. "The Welfare Cost of Permanent Inflation and Optimal Short-Run Economic Policy," NBER Working Papers 0201, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  6. Fischer, Stanley, 1981. "Towards an understanding of the costs of inflation: II," Carnegie-Rochester Conference Series on Public Policy, Elsevier, vol. 15(1), pages 5-41, January. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  7. Michael P. Devereux & R. Glenn Hubbard, 2000. "Taxing Multinationals," NBER Working Papers 7920, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  8. Assaf Razin & Joel Slemrod, 1990. "Taxation in the Global Economy," NBER Books, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc, number razi90-1.
  9. Gordon, Roger H, 1984. "Inflation, Taxation, and Corporate Behavior," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, MIT Press, vol. 99(2), pages 312-27, May.
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  10. Don Fullerton & Diane Lim Rogers, 1997. "Neglected Effects on the Uses Side: Even a Uniform Tax Would Change Relative Goods Prices," NBER Working Papers 5937, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  11. Bayoumi, Tamim & Gagnon, Joseph, 1996. "Taxation and inflation: A new explanation for capital flows," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 38(2), pages 303-330, October. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  12. Cummins, Jason G. & Hassett, Kevin A. & Hubbard, R. Glenn, 1996. "Tax reforms and investment: A cross-country comparison," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 62(1-2), pages 237-273, October. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  13. Martin Feldstein & Lawrence H. Summers, 1980. "Inflation and the Taxation of Capital Income in the Corporate Sector," NBER Working Papers 0312, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  14. Hartman, David G, 1979. "Taxation and the Effects of Inflation on the Real Capital Stock in an Open Economy," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 20(2), pages 417-25, June. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  15. Alan J. Auerbach, 1981. "Inflation and the Tax Treatment of Firm Behavior," NBER Working Papers 0547, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  16. Jason Cummins & R. Glenn Hubbard, 1995. "The Tax Sensitivity of Foreign Direct Investment: Evidence from Firm-Level Panel Data," NBER Chapters, in: The Effects of Taxation on Multinational Corporations, pages 123-152 National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!]
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  17. Auerbach, Alan J., 1989. "The deadweight loss from `non-neutral' capital income taxation," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 40(1), pages 1-36, October. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  18. Alan J. Auerbach, 1990. "Tax Reform and Adjustment Costs: The Impact on Investment and Market Value," NBER Working Papers 2103, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  19. Hansson, Ingemar & Stuart, Charles, 1986. "The Fisher Hypothesis and International Capital Markets," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 94(6), pages 1330-37, December. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  20. Jason G. Cummins & Kevin A. Hassett & R. Glenn Hubbard, 1994. "A Reconsideration of Investment Behavior Using Tax Reforms as Natural Experiments," Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, Economic Studies Program, The Brookings Institution, vol. 25(1994-2), pages 1-74. [Downloadable!]
  21. 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)
    Other versions:
  22. Darby, Michael R, 1975. "The Financial and Tax Effects of Monetary Policy on Interest Rates," Economic Inquiry, Oxford University Press, vol. 13(2), pages 266-76, June.
  23. Hubbard, R Glenn, 1997. "How Different Are Income and Consumption Taxes?," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 87(2), pages 138-42, May. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  24. Feldstein, Martin S & Green, Jerry R & Sheshinski, Eytan, 1978. "Inflation and Taxes in a Growing Economy with Debt and Equity Finance," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 86(2), pages S53-70, April. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  25. Rosanne Altshuler & T. Scott Newlon & William Randolph, 1996. "Do Repatriation Taxes Matter? Evidence from the Tax Returns of U.S. Multinationals," Departmental Working Papers 199405, Rutgers University, Department of Economics.
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  26. Levi, Maurice D, 1977. "Taxation and "Abnormal" International Capital Flows," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 85(3), pages 635-46, June.
  27. Martin Feldstein, 1997. "The Costs and Benefits of Going from Low Inflation to Price Stability," NBER Working Papers 5469, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
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Cited by:
(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. Rochelle M. Edge & Jeremy B. Rudd, 2002. "Taxation and the Taylor principle," Finance and Economics Discussion Series 2002-51, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.). [Downloadable!]
  2. O'Reilly, B., 1998. "The Benefits of Low Inflation: Taking Shock "A nickel ain't worth a dime any more" [Yogi Berra]," Technical Reports 83, Bank of Canada. [Downloadable!]
  3. Kenji Moriyama, 2008. "Investigating Inflation Dynamics in Sudan," IMF Working Papers 08/189, International Monetary Fund. [Downloadable!]
  4. Eugenio Gaiotti & Andrea Generale, 2001. "Does monetary policy have asymmetric effects? A look at the investment decisions of Italian firms," Working Paper Series 110, European Central Bank. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  5. Pierre Fortin & George A. Akerlof & William T. Dickens & George L. Perry, 2002. "Inflation and Unemployment in the U.S. and Canada: A Common Framework," Cahiers de recherche du Département des sciences économiques, UQAM 20-16, Université du Québec à Montréal, Département des sciences économiques. [Downloadable!]
  6. William T. Gavin & Finn E. Kydland & Michael R. Pakko, 2006. "Monetary policy, taxes and the business cycle," Working Papers 2004-017, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  7. Darrel Cohen & Kevin A. Hassett, 1997. "Inflation, taxes, and the durability of capital," Finance and Economics Discussion Series 1997-53, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.). [Downloadable!]
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