IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/aea/aejmac/v16y2024i2p182-216.html

Redistributive Capital Taxation Revisited

Author

Listed:
  • Özlem Kina
  • Ctirad Slavík
  • Hakki Yazici

Abstract

This paper uses a rich quantitative model with endogenous skill acquisition to show that capital-skill complementarity provides a quantitatively significant rationale to tax capital for redistributive governments. The optimal capital income tax rate is 67 percent, while it is 61 percent in an identically calibrated model without capital-skill complementarity. The skill premium falls from 1.9 to 1.84 along the transition following the optimal reform in the capital-skill complementarity model, implying substantial indirect redistribution from skilled to unskilled workers. These results show that a redistributive government should take into account capital-skill complementarity when taxing capital.

Suggested Citation

  • Özlem Kina & Ctirad Slavík & Hakki Yazici, 2024. "Redistributive Capital Taxation Revisited," American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics, American Economic Association, vol. 16(2), pages 182-216, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:aea:aejmac:v:16:y:2024:i:2:p:182-216
    DOI: 10.1257/mac.20200395
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.aeaweb.org/doi/10.1257/mac.20200395
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://doi.org/10.3886/E184143V1
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.aeaweb.org/doi/10.1257/mac.20200395.appx
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.aeaweb.org/doi/10.1257/mac.20200395.ds
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to AEA members and institutional subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1257/mac.20200395?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Mendoza, Enrique G. & Razin, Assaf & Tesar, Linda L., 1994. "Effective tax rates in macroeconomics: Cross-country estimates of tax rates on factor incomes and consumption," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 34(3), pages 297-323, December.
    2. ., 2023. "Elements for the analysis of economic decisions," Chapters, in: Decisions, Preferences, and Heuristics, chapter 4, pages 67-151, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

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


    Cited by:

    1. Chen, Yunmin & Ren, Dongmeng, 2025. "Optimal taxation, minimum wage constraint in a model of capital-skill complementarity," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 103(C).

    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. Persson, Torsten & Tabellini, Guido, 2002. "Political economics and public finance," Handbook of Public Economics, in: A. J. Auerbach & M. Feldstein (ed.), Handbook of Public Economics, edition 1, volume 3, chapter 24, pages 1549-1659, Elsevier.
    2. Martin Iseringhausen & Hauke Vierke, 2019. "What Drives Output Volatility? The Role of Demographics and Government Size Revisited," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 81(4), pages 849-867, August.
    3. Hamza Polattimur, 2013. "Housing, Collateral Constraints, and Fiscal Policy," Ekonomi-tek - International Economics Journal, Turkish Economic Association, vol. 2(2), pages 53-82, May.
    4. Michael P. Devereux, 2003. "Measuring Taxes on Income from Capital," CESifo Working Paper Series 962, CESifo.
    5. Shatalovа, Svetlana (Шаталова, Светлана) & Korytin, Andrey (Корытин, Андрей) & Zakharenkova, Elena (Захаренкова, Елена), 2017. "Analysis of Approaches to Determining the Level of Tax Burden [Анализ Подходов К Определению Уровня Налоговой Нагрузки В Экономике]," Working Papers 041704, Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration.
    6. Nukic, Senada, 2014. "Fiscal Consolidation and Employment Loss," MPRA Paper 60224, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    7. D’Erasmo, P. & Mendoza, E.G. & Zhang, J., 2016. "What is a Sustainable Public Debt?," Handbook of Macroeconomics, in: J. B. Taylor & Harald Uhlig (ed.), Handbook of Macroeconomics, edition 1, volume 2, chapter 0, pages 2493-2597, Elsevier.
    8. Pallage, Stéphane & Scruggs, Lyle & Zimmermann, Christian, 2013. "Measuring Unemployment Insurance Generosity," Political Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 21(4), pages 524-549.
    9. Honerkamp, Josef & Moog, Stefan & Raffelhüschen, Bernd, 2004. "Earlier or Later: A General Equilibrium Analysis of Bringing Forward an Already Announced Tax Reform," Discussion Papers 123, Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg, Institut für Finanzwissenschaft.
    10. Ladislav Hájek, 2003. "Daňové zatížení v zemích OECD a v České republice [Tax burden in OECD countries and in the Czech Republic]," Politická ekonomie, Prague University of Economics and Business, vol. 2003(5), pages 714-725.
    11. Jaime Alonso-Carrera & María Jesús Freire-Serén & Baltasar Manzano, 2004. "Rentabilidad social de la inversión pública española en infraestructuras," Hacienda Pública Española / Review of Public Economics, IEF, vol. 170(3), pages 81-103, september.
    12. Luksic, Jan, 2020. "The extensive macro labor supply elasticity: Integrating taxes and expenditures," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 121(C).
    13. Enrique G. Mendoza, 2001. "The International Macroeconomics of Taxation and the Case Against European Tax Harmonization," NBER Working Papers 8217, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    14. Nicolae-Bogdan Ianc, 2025. "How do effective taxation and institutions affect FDI nowadays?," Economic Change and Restructuring, Springer, vol. 58(3), pages 1-21, June.
    15. Juan Carlos Conesa & Timothy J. Kehoe & Kim J. Ruhl, 2007. "Modeling great depressions: the depression in Finland in the 1990s," Quarterly Review, Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, vol. 31(Nov), pages 16-44.
    16. Moraga, Jesús Fernández-Huertas & Vidal, Jean-Pierre, 2010. "Fiscal sustainability and public debt in an endogenous growth model," Journal of Pension Economics and Finance, Cambridge University Press, vol. 9(2), pages 277-302, April.
    17. Konstantinos Angelopoulos & George Economides & Pantelis Kammas, 2009. "Do political incentives matter for tax policies? Ideology, opportunism and the tax structure," Working Papers 2009_12, Business School - Economics, University of Glasgow.
    18. Röhrs, Sigrid & Winter, Christoph, 2017. "Reducing government debt in the presence of inequality," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 82(C), pages 1-20.
    19. Hashmat U. Khan & Jean-François Rouillard, 2017. "Why Does Household Investment Lead Business Investment over the Business Cycle?: Comment," Cahiers de recherche 17-01, Departement d'économique de l'École de gestion à l'Université de Sherbrooke.
    20. Jan Jacobs & Jenny Ligthart & Hendrik Vrijburg, 2010. "Consumption tax competition among governments: Evidence from the United States," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 17(3), pages 271-294, June.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • D31 - Microeconomics - - Distribution - - - Personal Income and Wealth Distribution
    • H21 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Efficiency; Optimal Taxation
    • H23 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Externalities; Redistributive Effects; Environmental Taxes and Subsidies
    • H24 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Personal Income and Other Nonbusiness Taxes and Subsidies
    • H25 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Business Taxes and Subsidies
    • J24 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity
    • J31 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs - - - Wage Level and Structure; Wage Differentials

    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:aea:aejmac:v:16:y:2024:i:2:p:182-216. 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: Michael P. Albert (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/aeaaaea.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.