IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/dyncon/v37y2013i4p897-909.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The marginal welfare cost of capital taxation: Discounting matters

Author

Listed:
  • Santoro, Marika
  • Wei, Chao

Abstract

We interpret the marginal welfare cost of capital income taxes as the present discounted value of consumption distortions. Such an asset market interpretation emphasizes the importance of the interest rate used to value future distortions, especially in the presence of uncertainty. We find that the interest rate decreases as the tax rate increases, thus increasing the welfare cost. The variations in the interest rate are caused by amplified responses of consumption to exogenous shocks as a result of capital taxation. The welfare cost may be underestimated if variations in interest rates are ignored, especially when tax rates are high.

Suggested Citation

  • Santoro, Marika & Wei, Chao, 2013. "The marginal welfare cost of capital taxation: Discounting matters," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 37(4), pages 897-909.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:dyncon:v:37:y:2013:i:4:p:897-909
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jedc.2012.12.006
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0165188912002436
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.jedc.2012.12.006?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
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Nicholas Bloom & Max Floetotto & Nir Jaimovich & Itay Saporta†Eksten & Stephen J. Terry, 2018. "Really Uncertain Business Cycles," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 86(3), pages 1031-1065, May.
    2. Judd, Kenneth L, 1987. "The Welfare Cost of Factor Taxation in a Perfect-Foresight Model," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 95(4), pages 675-709, August.
    3. Lawrence J. Christiano & Michele Boldrin & Jonas D. M. Fisher, 2001. "Habit Persistence, Asset Returns, and the Business Cycle," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 91(1), pages 149-166, March.
    4. Gordon, Roger H & Wilson, John Douglas, 1989. "Measuring the Efficiency Cost of Taxing Risky Capital Income," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 79(3), pages 427-439, June.
    5. Ellen R. McGrattan & Edward C. Prescott, 2005. "Taxes, Regulations, and the Value of U.S. and U.K. Corporations," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 72(3), pages 767-796.
    6. Roger H. Gordon, 1985. "Taxation of Corporate Capital Income: Tax Revenues Versus Tax Distortions," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 100(1), pages 1-27.
    7. B. Douglas Bernheim, 1981. "A Note on Dynamic Tax Incidence," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 96(4), pages 705-723.
    8. Bulow, Jeremy I & Summers, Lawrence H, 1984. "The Taxation of Risky Assets," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 92(1), pages 20-39, February.
    9. Chamley, Christophe, 1981. "The Welfare Cost of Capital Income Taxation in a Growing Economy," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 89(3), pages 468-496, June.
    10. Marika Santoro & Chao Wei, 2011. "Taxation, Investment and Asset Pricing," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 14(3), pages 443-454, July.
    11. Jermann, Urban J., 1998. "Asset pricing in production economies," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 41(2), pages 257-275, April.
    12. John H. Cochrane & Lars Peter Hansen, 1992. "Asset Pricing Explorations for Macroeconomics," NBER Chapters, in: NBER Macroeconomics Annual 1992, Volume 7, pages 115-182, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    13. Robert E. Lucas & Jr., 1967. "Adjustment Costs and the Theory of Supply," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 75(4), pages 321-321.
    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. Marika Santoro & Chao Wei, 2011. "The Welfare Cost of Capital Taxation: An Asset Market Approach (Working Paper 2011-03)," Working Papers 41152, Congressional Budget Office.
    2. Marika Santoro & Chao Wei, 2011. "Taxation, Investment and Asset Pricing," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 14(3), pages 443-454, July.
    3. Lan, Hong & Meyer-Gohde, Alexander, 2013. "Decomposing risk in dynamic stochastic general equilibrium," SFB 649 Discussion Papers 2013-022, Humboldt University Berlin, Collaborative Research Center 649: Economic Risk.
    4. Cochrane, John H., 2005. "Financial Markets and the Real Economy," Foundations and Trends(R) in Finance, now publishers, vol. 1(1), pages 1-101, July.
    5. Juha Ilmari Seppala, 2000. "Asset Prices and Business Cycles Under Limited Commitment," Econometric Society World Congress 2000 Contributed Papers 0244, Econometric Society.
    6. Lars Lochstoer & Harjoat S. Bhamra, 2009. "Return Predictability and Labor Market Frictions in a Real Business Cycle Model," 2009 Meeting Papers 1257, Society for Economic Dynamics.
    7. Syed M. Ahsan & Panagiotis Tsigaris, 2009. "The Efficiency Loss of Capital Income Taxation under Imperfect Loss Offset Provisions," Public Finance Review, , vol. 37(6), pages 710-731, November.
    8. Gao, Lin & Hitzemann, Steffen & Shaliastovich, Ivan & Xu, Lai, 2022. "Oil volatility risk," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 144(2), pages 456-491.
    9. François Gourio, 2013. "Credit Risk and Disaster Risk," American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics, American Economic Association, vol. 5(3), pages 1-34, July.
    10. Marc Rapp & Bernhard Schwetzler, "undated". "Asset Prices in the Presence of a Tax Authority," German Working Papers in Law and Economics 2006-1-1167, Berkeley Electronic Press.
    11. Douch, Mohamed & Bouaddi, Mohammed, 2010. "EQUITY Premium Puzzle in a Data-Rich Environment," MPRA Paper 29440, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    12. Peter A. Schmid, 2013. "The destabilizing effect of company income taxation," Society and Economy, Akadémiai Kiadó, Hungary, vol. 35(3), pages 365-388, September.
    13. Andrew Y. Chen, 2014. "Precautionary Volatility and Asset Prices," Finance and Economics Discussion Series 2014-59, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.).
    14. Fehrle, Daniel & Heiberger, Christopher, 2024. "The return on everything and the business cycle in production economies," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 136(C).
    15. Katharina Finke & Jost H. Heckemeyer & Timo Reister & Christoph Spengel, 2013. "Impact of Tax-Rate Cut cum Base-Broadening Reforms on Heterogeneous Firms: Learning from the German Tax Reform of 2008," FinanzArchiv: Public Finance Analysis, Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen, vol. 69(1), pages 72-114, March.
    16. Mariano Max Croce, 2010. "Tax Uncertainty, Leverage and Asset Prices," 2010 Meeting Papers 1084, Society for Economic Dynamics.
    17. Bob Hamilton & Jack Mintz & John Whalley, 1991. "Decomposing the Welfare Costs of Capital Tax Distortions: The Importance of Risk Assumptions," NBER Working Papers 3628, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    18. Lin, Xiaoji, 2012. "Endogenous technological progress and the cross-section of stock returns," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 103(2), pages 411-427.
    19. Gourio, François, 2011. "Putty-clay technology and stock market volatility," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 58(2), pages 117-131, March.
    20. Laurian Lungu & Patrick Minford, 2006. "Explaining The Equity Risk Premium," Manchester School, University of Manchester, vol. 74(6), pages 670-700, December.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Welfare cost; Capital income taxes; Asset market;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • E22 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Consumption, Saving, Production, Employment, and Investment - - - Investment; Capital; Intangible Capital; Capacity
    • E62 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Macroeconomic Policy, Macroeconomic Aspects of Public Finance, and General Outlook - - - Fiscal Policy; Modern Monetary Theory
    • E44 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Money and Interest Rates - - - Financial Markets and the Macroeconomy
    • H25 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Business Taxes and Subsidies

    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:eee:dyncon:v:37:y:2013:i:4:p:897-909. 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: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/jedc .

    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.