IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/eecrev/v176y2025ics0014292125000893.html

Equity prices, market power, and optimal corporate tax policy

Author

Listed:
  • González, Ignacio
  • Montecino, Juan A.
  • Stiglitz, Joseph E.

Abstract

We study the optimal design of corporate tax policy in a textbook life-cycle model featuring two key deviations: (i) firms are imperfectly competitive and (ii) households save by purchasing equity shares in a stock market. In this simple environment, the financial wealth of savers is equal to the sum of the productive capital owned by firms and a component capturing the NPV of unproductive rents – what we term “market power wealth” (MPW). We show that this novel component has non-trivial macroeconomic effects, with important implications for optimal corporate tax policy. In particular, MPW significantly crowds out productive investment and accordingly can rationalize a high corporate tax rate. The optimal corporate tax code in our setting assigns the statutory corporate tax rate to target the financial value of pure profits while incentivizing capital accumulation with a partial expensing of firm investment costs.

Suggested Citation

  • González, Ignacio & Montecino, Juan A. & Stiglitz, Joseph E., 2025. "Equity prices, market power, and optimal corporate tax policy," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 176(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:eecrev:v:176:y:2025:i:c:s0014292125000893
    DOI: 10.1016/j.euroecorev.2025.105039
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0014292125000893
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.euroecorev.2025.105039?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 look for a different version below or

    for a different version of it.

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. John Van Reenen, 2018. "Increasing differences between firms: market power and the macro-economy," CEP Discussion Papers dp1576, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE.
    2. repec:bin:bpeajo:v:49:y:2019:i:2018-01:p:257-345 is not listed on IDEAS
    3. Susanto Basu, 2019. "Are Price-Cost Markups Rising in the United States? A Discussion of the Evidence," NBER Working Papers 26057, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    4. Stiglitz, Joseph E., 1976. "The corporation tax," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 5(3-4), pages 303-311.
    5. Lettau, Martin & Ludvigson, Sydney & Greenwald, Dan, 2019. "How the Wealth Was Won: Factor Shares as Market Fundamentals," CEPR Discussion Papers 14200, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    6. Magill, Michael & Quinzii, Martine, 2003. "Nonshiftable capital, affine price expectations and convergence to the Golden Rule," Journal of Mathematical Economics, Elsevier, vol. 39(3-4), pages 239-272, June.
    7. Kenneth L. Judd, 2002. "Capital-Income Taxation with Imperfect Competition," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 92(2), pages 417-421, May.
    8. Kenneth L. Judd, 1997. "The Optimal Tax Rate for Capital Income is Negative," NBER Working Papers 6004, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    9. Emmanuel Farhi & Francois Gourio, 2018. "Accounting for Macro-Finance Trends: Market Power, Intangibles, and Risk Premia," Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, Economic Studies Program, The Brookings Institution, vol. 49(2 (Fall)), pages 147-250.
    10. Jan De Loecker & Jan Eeckhout & Gabriel Unger, 2020. "The Rise of Market Power and the Macroeconomic Implications [“Econometric Tools for Analyzing Market Outcomes”]," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 135(2), pages 561-644.
    11. David Autor & David Dorn & Lawrence F Katz & Christina Patterson & John Van Reenen, 2020. "The Fall of the Labor Share and the Rise of Superstar Firms [“Automation and New Tasks: How Technology Displaces and Reinstates Labor”]," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 135(2), pages 645-709.
    12. Aghion, Philippe & Howitt, Peter, 1992. "A Model of Growth through Creative Destruction," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 60(2), pages 323-351, March.
    13. Eeckhout, Jan & De loecker, Jan, 2018. "Global Market Power," CEPR Discussion Papers 13009, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    14. Orhan Erem Atesagaoglu & Hakki Yazici, 2021. "Optimal Taxation of Capital in the Presence of Declining Labor Share," Bristol Economics Discussion Papers 21/739, School of Economics, University of Bristol, UK.
    15. Chamley, Christophe, 1986. "Optimal Taxation of Capital Income in General Equilibrium with Infinite Lives," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 54(3), pages 607-622, May.
    16. Andrew Atkeson & V. V. Chari & Patrick J. Kehoe, 1999. "Taxing capital income: a bad idea," Quarterly Review, Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, vol. 23(Sum), pages 3-17.
    17. Pierre Lafourcade, 2003. "Asset prices and rents in a GE model with imperfect competition," Finance and Economics Discussion Series 2003-60, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.).
    18. Guo, Jang-Ting & Lansing, Kevin J., 1999. "Optimal taxation of capital income with imperfectly competitive product markets," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 23(7), pages 967-995, June.
    19. Jan Eeckhout & Chunyang Fu & Wenjian Li & Xi Weng, 2026. "Optimal Taxation and Market Power," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 116(1), pages 119-163, January.
    20. Peretto, Pietro F., 2007. "Corporate taxes, growth and welfare in a Schumpeterian economy," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 137(1), pages 353-382, November.
    21. Stiglitz, Joseph E., 1973. "Taxation, corporate financial policy, and the cost of capital," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 2(1), pages 1-34, February.
    22. Eggertsson, Gauti B. & Robbins, Jacob A. & Wold, Ella Getz, 2021. "Kaldor and Piketty’s facts: The rise of monopoly power in the United States," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 124(S), pages 19-38.
    23. Evsey D. Domar & Richard A. Musgrave, 1944. "Proportional Income Taxation and Risk-Taking," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 58(3), pages 388-422.
    24. Orhan Erem Atesagaoglu & Hakki Yazici, 2021. "Optimal Taxation of Capital in the Presence of Declining Labor Share," CESifo Working Paper Series 9101, CESifo.
    25. Robert J. Barro & Jason Furman, 2018. "Macroeconomic Effects of the 2017 Tax Reform," Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, Economic Studies Program, The Brookings Institution, vol. 49(1 (Spring), pages 257-345.
    26. Judd, Kenneth L., 1985. "Redistributive taxation in a simple perfect foresight model," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 28(1), pages 59-83, October.
    27. Susanto Basu, 2019. "Are Price-Cost Markups Rising in the United States? A Discussion of the Evidence," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 33(3), pages 3-22, Summer.
    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. Louis Kaplow, 2024. "Optimal Income Taxation," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 62(2), pages 637-738, June.
    2. Maarten De Ridder, 2024. "Market Power and Innovation in the Intangible Economy," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 114(1), pages 199-251, January.
    3. Mumtaz Ahmad & John Fernald & Hashmat Khan, 2019. "Returns to Scale in U.S. Production, Redux," Carleton Economic Papers 19-07, Carleton University, Department of Economics.
    4. Mondolo, Jasmine, 2021. "Macroeconomic dynamics and the role of market power. The case of Italy," MPRA Paper 110172, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 05 Oct 2021.
    5. Jasmine Mondolo, 2021. "Macroeconomic dynamics and the role of market power. The case of Italy," DEM Working Papers 2021/17, Department of Economics and Management.
    6. Ugur, Mehmet, 2024. "Innovation, market power and the labour share: Evidence from OECD industries," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 203(C).
    7. Corhay, Alexandre & Kung, Howard & Schmid, Lukas, 2025. "Q: Risk, rents, or growth?," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 165(C).
    8. Chen, Ping-Ho & Chu, Angus C. & Chu, Hsun & Lai, Ching-Chong, 2023. "Optimal capital taxation in an economy with innovation-driven growth," Macroeconomic Dynamics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 27(3), pages 635-668, April.
    9. Díez, Federico J. & Fan, Jiayue & Villegas-Sánchez, Carolina, 2021. "Global declining competition?," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 132(C).
    10. Gregor Schwerhoff & Ottmar Edenhofer & Marc Fleurbaey, 2020. "Taxation Of Economic Rents," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 34(2), pages 398-423, April.
    11. Koskela Erkki & Thadden Leopold von, 2008. "Optimal Factor Taxation under Wage Bargaining: A Dynamic Perspective," German Economic Review, De Gruyter, vol. 9(2), pages 135-159, May.
    12. Louis Kaplow, 2022. "Optimal Income Taxation," NBER Working Papers 30199, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    13. Emanuela Ciapanna & Sara Formai & Andrea Linarello & Gabriele Rovigatti, 2024. "Measuring market power: macro- and micro-evidence from Italy," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 67(6), pages 2677-2717, December.
    14. Tang Jenn-Hong, 2020. "Ramsey income taxation in a small open economy with trade in capital goods," The B.E. Journal of Macroeconomics, De Gruyter, vol. 20(1), pages 1-48, January.
    15. Germán Gutiérrez & Callum Jones & Thomas Philippon, 2019. "Entry Costs and the Macroeconomy," NBER Working Papers 25609, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    16. Mino, Kazuo, 2001. "Optimal taxation in dynamic economies with increasing returns," Japan and the World Economy, Elsevier, vol. 13(3), pages 235-253, August.
    17. van Heuvelen, Gerrit Hugo & Bettendorf, Leon & Meijerink, Gerdien, 2021. "Markups in a dual labour market: The case of the Netherlands," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 77(C).
    18. Orhan Erem Atesagaoglu & Hakki Yazici, 2021. "Optimal Taxation of Capital in the Presence of Declining Labor Share," CESifo Working Paper Series 9101, CESifo.
    19. Rivera-Padilla, Alberto, 2023. "Market power, output, and productivity," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 232(C).
    20. Villegas-Sanchez, Carolina & Díez, Federico & Fan, Jiayue, 2019. "Global Declining Competition," CEPR Discussion Papers 13696, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;

    JEL classification:

    • H21 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Efficiency; Optimal Taxation
    • E22 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Consumption, Saving, Production, Employment, and Investment - - - Investment; Capital; Intangible Capital; Capacity
    • G12 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Asset Pricing; Trading Volume; Bond Interest Rates

    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:eecrev:v:176:y:2025:i:c:s0014292125000893. 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/eer .

    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.