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The Marginal Cost of Funds and the Shadow Prices of Public Sector Inputs and Outputs

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  • Liqun Liu

Abstract

Existing studies on the marginal cost of funds (MCF) do not incorporate the public sector inputs explicitly. Incorporating labor and capital as public sector inputs raises questions concerning the definition and the usage of the MCF, and its relation to public sector shadow prices. This paper finds that the MCF should be defined based on the excess revenue rather than the gross revenue; that general equilibrium effects on individuals' net income and government's inframarginal expenditures should be incorporated; and that the MCF measures an element in the shadow price that is solely attributable to the marginal financing, justifying the role of the MCF in cost-benefit analysis and tax reform. Copyright Kluwer Academic Publishers 2004

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  • Liqun Liu, 2004. "The Marginal Cost of Funds and the Shadow Prices of Public Sector Inputs and Outputs," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 11(1), pages 17-29, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:kap:itaxpf:v:11:y:2004:i:1:p:17-29
    DOI: 10.1023/B:ITAX.0000004775.40515.f6
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    Cited by:

    1. Dan Usher, 2006. "Should The Samuelson Rule Be Modified To Account For The Marginal Cost Of Public Funds?," Working Paper 1065, Economics Department, Queen's University.
    2. Chris Jones, 2005. "Why the Marginal Social Cost of Funds is not the Shadow Value of Government Revenue," ANU Working Papers in Economics and Econometrics 2005-449, Australian National University, College of Business and Economics, School of Economics.
    3. James E. Anderson & Will Martin, 2011. "Costs of Taxation and Benefits of Public Goods with Multiple Taxes and Goods," Journal of Public Economic Theory, Association for Public Economic Theory, vol. 13(2), pages 289-309, April.
    4. Honkatukia, Juha & Dixon, Peter & Rimmer, Maureen & Tamminen, Saara, 2013. "The Costs of Fiscal Thrift," Conference papers 330255, Purdue University, Center for Global Trade Analysis, Global Trade Analysis Project.
    5. Shun-ichiro Bessho & Masayoshi Hayashi, 2013. "Estimating the Social Marginal Cost of Public Funds," Public Finance Review, , vol. 41(3), pages 360-385, May.
    6. Honkatukia, Juha & Tamminen, Saara, 2012. "What is the Price of Austerity? – A Dynamic AGE-analysis for Finland," Conference papers 332274, Purdue University, Center for Global Trade Analysis, Global Trade Analysis Project.
    7. Diego Martinez-Lopez, 2004. "The optimal provision of public inputs in a second best scenario," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 8(3), pages 1-9.
    8. Liqun Liu, 2006. "Combining Distributional Weights and the Marginal Cost of Funds," Public Finance Review, , vol. 34(1), pages 60-79, January.
    9. Dixon, Peter & Honkatukia, Juha & Rimmer, Maureen, 2012. "The Marginal Cost of Funds from Different Taxes in Finland – An AGE evaluation," Conference papers 332273, Purdue University, Center for Global Trade Analysis, Global Trade Analysis Project.
    10. Hisahiro Naito, 2016. "Optimal Shadow Prices for the Public Sector in the Presence of a Non-linear Income Tax System in an Open Economy," Tsukuba Economics Working Papers 2016-003, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Tsukuba.
    11. Liqun Liu, 2005. "The Multi-Period Cost-Benefit Rule with Mobile Capital and Distorted Labor," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 12(2), pages 145-158, March.

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    marginal cost of funds; shadow prices;

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