IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/ifs/fistud/v22y2001i4p527-546..html
   My bibliography  Save this article

After the death of inflation: will fiscal drag survive?

Author

Listed:
  • Friedrich Heinemann

Abstract

Declining inflation rates might have negative consequences for tax revenues. Phenomena such as the inflationary bracket creep in a progressive income tax system do not work any longer. With this background, the paper analyses the extent of fiscal drag for OECD countries since 1965. Some consideration of the role of money illusion and indexation in this context lays the theoretical base. A framework is presented that allows for the classification of fiscal structures with regard to the type of fiscal drag. The subsequent econometric panel analysis is performed for total and disaggregated government revenues. The results back theoretical considerations of inflation"s impact on different kinds of taxes, which tends to be positive for individual income taxes and social security contributions and is negative for corporate income taxation. The paper concludes that both declining inflation and changing tax structures limit the potential for future fiscal drag.

Suggested Citation

  • Friedrich Heinemann, 2001. "After the death of inflation: will fiscal drag survive?," Fiscal Studies, Institute for Fiscal Studies, vol. 22(4), pages 527-546., December.
    • Handle: RePEc:ifs:fistud:v:22:y:2001:i:4:p:527-546.
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.ifs.org.uk/fs/articles/0051a.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Daniel Gros & Guyvandille, 1995. "Seigniorage and EMU: The Fiscal Implications of Price Stability and Financial Market Integration," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 33(2), pages 175-196, June.
    2. Alberto Alesina & Roberto Perotti, 1995. "Fiscal Expansions and Fiscal Adjustments in OECD Countries," NBER Working Papers 5214, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    3. George A. Akerlof & William R. Dickens & George L. Perry, 1996. "The Macroeconomics of Low Inflation," Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, Economic Studies Program, The Brookings Institution, vol. 27(1), pages 1-76.
    4. Guillermo Calvo & Mervyn King (ed.), 1998. "The Debt Burden and its Consequences for Monetary Policy," International Economic Association Series, Palgrave Macmillan, number 978-1-349-26077-5.
    5. W. STEYN & F.C.v.N. FOURIE, 1996. "The Structure of Personal Income Tax in Times of Inflation: A Formula Tax," South African Journal of Economics, Economic Society of South Africa, vol. 64(4), pages 200-208, December.
    6. Günther G. Schulze & Heinrich W. Ursprung, 1999. "Globalisation of the Economy and the Nation State," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 22(3), pages 295-352, May.
    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. Alari Paulus & Holly Sutherland & Iva Tasseva, 2020. "Indexing Out of Poverty? Fiscal Drag and Benefit Erosion in Cross‐National Perspective," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 66(2), pages 311-333, June.
    2. Bańkowski, Krzysztof & Checherita-Westphal, Cristina & Jesionek, Julia & Muggenthaler, Philip & Frutos, Mario Alloza & Avgousti, Aristoklis & Briodeau, Clémence & Brusbārde, Baiba & Caprioli, Francesc, 2023. "The effects of high inflation on public finances in the euro area," Occasional Paper Series 332, European Central Bank.
    3. Creedy, John & Gemmell, Norman, 2008. "Corporation tax buoyancy and revenue elasticity in the UK," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 25(1), pages 24-37, January.
    4. Sanz Labrador, Ismael & Sanz-Sanz, José Félix, 2013. "Política fiscal y crecimiento económico: consideraciones microeconómicas y relaciones macroeconómicas," Macroeconomía del Desarrollo 5367, Naciones Unidas Comisión Económica para América Latina y el Caribe (CEPAL).
    5. Callan, Tim & Keane, Claire & Regan, Mark, 2019. "Assessing the distributional impact of budgetary policy: the role of benchmarks and indexation," Papers BP2020/2, Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI).
    6. Hechtner, Frank & Massarrat-Mashhadi, Nima & Sielaff, Christian, 2012. "Eine Analyse zur Einkommensteuerbelastung und Wirkung der kalten Progression der vergangenen 20 Jahre in Deutschland," arqus Discussion Papers in Quantitative Tax Research 137, arqus - Arbeitskreis Quantitative Steuerlehre.
    7. John Creedy & Norman Gemmell, 2010. "Modelling Corporation Tax Revenue," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 13695.
    8. David Fielding, 2011. "New Zealand: The Last Bastion of Textbook Open-Economy Macroeconomics," Working Papers 1105, University of Otago, Department of Economics, revised Jun 2011.
    9. John Creedy & José Félix Sanz?Sanz, 2010. "Modelling Personal Income Taxation in Spain:Revenue Elasticities and Regional Comparisons," Department of Economics - Working Papers Series 1097, The University of Melbourne.
    10. Süssmuth, Bernd & Wieschemeyer, Matthias, 2017. "Progressive tax-like effects of inflation: Fact or myth? The U.S. post-war experience," IWH Discussion Papers 33/2017, Halle Institute for Economic Research (IWH).
    11. Golpe, Antonio A. & Sánchez-Fuentes, A. Jesus & Vides, José Carlos, 2023. "Fiscal sustainability, monetary policy and economic growth in the Euro Area: In search of the ultimate causal path," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 78(C), pages 1026-1045.
    12. Westerheide, Peter, 2006. "Nachgelagerte Besteuerung privater Altersvorsorgeaufwendungen: Auswirkungen auf die Alterseinkommen ausgewählter Haushaltstypen," ZEW Discussion Papers 06-090, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research.
    13. Edoardo Beretta, 2020. "The fourfold relation between the essence of money, inflation, bubbles and debt—A theoretical macrofounded analysis," Economic Notes, Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena SpA, vol. 49(3), September.
    14. Wieschemeyer, Matthias & Süssmuth, Bernd, 2019. "Progressive tax-like effects of inflation: Fact or myth? The U.S. post-war experience," VfS Annual Conference 2019 (Leipzig): 30 Years after the Fall of the Berlin Wall - Democracy and Market Economy 203634, Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association.
    15. Sven Langedijk & Aurélien Poissonnier & Edouard Turkisch, 2023. "The impact of macroeconomic developments and imbalances on fiscal outcomes," SN Business & Economics, Springer, vol. 3(6), pages 1-29, June.
    16. Altemeyer-Bartscher, Martin & Zeddies, Götz, 2017. "Bracket creeps: Bane or boon for the stability of numerical budget rules?," IWH Discussion Papers 29/2016, Halle Institute for Economic Research (IWH), revised 2017.

    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. Marco Lossani & Piergiovanna Natale & Patrizio Tirelli, 1997. "Do we really need to tame a conservative ECB? When the policy mix matters," Working Papers 18, University of Milano-Bicocca, Department of Economics, revised Nov 1998.
    2. Lossani, M. & Natale, P. & Tirelli, P., 2003. "A nominal income growth target for a conservative ECB? When the policy mix matters," Journal of Policy Modeling, Elsevier, vol. 25(8), pages 685-699, November.
    3. Steininger, Lea & Hesse, Casimir, 2024. "Buying into new ideas: The ECB’s evolving justification of unlimited liquidity," Department of Economics Working Paper Series 357, WU Vienna University of Economics and Business.
    4. Dorothée Allain-Dupré & Claudia Hulbert & Margaux Vincent, 2017. "Subnational Infrastructure Investment in OECD Countries: Trends and Key Governance Levers," OECD Regional Development Working Papers 2017/05, OECD Publishing.
    5. Willem Thorbecke, 2002. "A Dual Mandate for the Federal Reserve: The Pursuit of Price Stability and Full Employment," Eastern Economic Journal, Eastern Economic Association, vol. 28(2), pages 255-268, Spring.
    6. Antonella Cavallo & Antonio Ribba, 2017. "Measuring the Effects of Oil Price and Euro-area Shocks on CEECs Business Cycles," Department of Economics 0111, University of Modena and Reggio E., Faculty of Economics "Marco Biagi".
    7. António Afonso, 2007. "An Avenue for Expansionary Fiscal Contractions," The IUP Journal of Public Finance, IUP Publications, vol. 0(3), pages 7-15, August.
    8. Fatih Ozatay, 2008. "Expansionary Fiscal Consolidations: New Evidence from Turkey," Working Papers 0805, TOBB University of Economics and Technology, Department of Economics.
    9. Milan Deskar-Skrbic & Darjan Milutinovic, 2021. "Design of fiscal consolidation packages and model-based fiscal multipliers in Croatia," Public Sector Economics, Institute of Public Finance, vol. 45(1), pages 1-61.
    10. Rossitsa Rangelova, 2001. "Small Economies and the Challenge of Globalisation," Economic Thought journal, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences - Economic Research Institute, issue 1, pages 86-103.
    11. Philip Du Caju & Erwan Gautier & Daphne Momferatu & Melanie Ward-Warmedinger, 2009. "Institutional Features of Wage Bargaining in 23 European Countries, the US and Japan," Ekonomia, Cyprus Economic Society and University of Cyprus, vol. 12(2), pages 57-108, Winter.
    12. repec:hum:wpaper:sfb649dp2005-039 is not listed on IDEAS
    13. Lars E. O. Svensson, 1999. "Monetary policy issues for the Eurosystem," Proceedings, Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco.
    14. López Díaz, J., 1999. "Divergencia real en la unión monetaria: Un ejercicio de simulación," Estudios de Economia Aplicada, Estudios de Economia Aplicada, vol. 13, pages 87-100, Diciembre.
    15. Ben S. Bernanke & Vincent R. Reinhart & Brian P. Sack, 2004. "Monetary Policy Alternatives at the Zero Bound: An Empirical Assessment," Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, Economic Studies Program, The Brookings Institution, vol. 35(2), pages 1-100.
    16. Combes, Jean-Louis & Minea, Alexandru & Sawadogo, Pegdéwendé Nestor, 2021. "Does the composition of government spending matter for government bond spreads?," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 96(C), pages 409-420.
    17. Fehr, Ernst & Goette, Lorenz, 2005. "Robustness and real consequences of nominal wage rigidity," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 52(4), pages 779-804, May.
    18. Feldmann, Horst, 2012. "Banking deregulation around the world, 1970s to 2000s: The impact on unemployment," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 24(C), pages 26-42.
    19. Patrick A. Puhani, 2000. "On the Identification of Relative Wage Rigidity Dynamics," William Davidson Institute Working Papers Series 343, William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan.
    20. Jürgen Von Hagen, 1999. "Macroeconomic Consequences of the EMU," Empirica, Springer;Austrian Institute for Economic Research;Austrian Economic Association, vol. 26(4), pages 359-374, December.
    21. L. Lambertini & R. Rovelli, 2003. "Monetary and fiscal policy coordination and macroeconomic stabilization. A theoretical analysis," Working Papers 464, Dipartimento Scienze Economiche, Universita' di Bologna.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • H20 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - General
    • E63 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Macroeconomic Policy, Macroeconomic Aspects of Public Finance, and General Outlook - - - Comparative or Joint Analysis of Fiscal and Monetary Policy; Stabilization; Treasury Policy

    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:ifs:fistud:v:22:y:2001:i:4:p:527-546.. 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: Emma Hyman (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/ifsssuk.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.