IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/kap/pubcho/v38y1982i3p225-241.html

Crisis of the tax state

Author

Listed:
  • Dieter Bös

Abstract

This paper presents a simple model of the ‘tax state’, where a progressive income tax is used to finance publicly supplied goods that are distributed free of charge. The individual citizens may be dissatisfied with such a fiscal system. If more than 50% are dissatisfied, we speak of a ‘crisis of the tax state’. Such a crisis becomes more probable, if the allocational and distributional instruments are chosen inadequately, if the disincentive effects of the progressive tax increase and if the inefficiency of public supply increases. Paradoxically such a crisis becomes more improbable, if people want a smaller public sector. Moreover, it has been shown that the psychological attitudes of the consumers and the inefficiency of public supply may bring about an ‘absolute’ crisis of the tax state. In such a situation there do not exist any realizations of tax-state instruments that are supported by a majority. Copyright Martinus Nijhoff Publishers 1982

Suggested Citation

  • Dieter Bös, 1982. "Crisis of the tax state," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 38(3), pages 225-241, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:kap:pubcho:v:38:y:1982:i:3:p:225-241
    DOI: 10.1007/BF00144848
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1007/BF00144848
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/BF00144848?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

    for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Usher, Dan, 1977. "The welfare economics of the socialization of commodities," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 8(2), pages 151-168, October.
    2. Romer, Thomas & Rosenthal, Howard, 1979. "The elusive median voter," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 12(2), pages 143-170, October.
    3. Feldstein, Martin, 1973. "On the optimal progressivity of the income tax," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 2(4), pages 357-376.
    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. Haizhen Mou, 2012. "The political economy of public health expenditure and wait times in a public‐private mixed health care system," Canadian Journal of Economics/Revue canadienne d'économique, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 45(4), pages 1640-1666, November.
    2. Bas Jacobs, 2013. "Optimal redistributive tax and education policies in general equilibrium," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 20(2), pages 312-337, April.
    3. John Jackson, 2014. "Location, location, location: the Davis-Hinich model of electoral competition," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 159(1), pages 197-218, April.
    4. Franciscos Koutentakis, 2012. "Public Education and Democracy in a Simple Model of Persistent Inequality," Working Papers 1204, University of Crete, Department of Economics.
    5. Dennis Leyden, 1988. "Intergovernmental grants and successful tax limitation referenda," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 57(2), pages 141-154, May.
    6. Lopez-Daneri, Martin, 2016. "NIT picking: The macroeconomic effects of a Negative Income Tax," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 68(C), pages 1-16.
    7. George TRIDIMAS, 2006. "The economics and empirics of the allocation of public consumption expenditures," Departmental Working Papers 2006-02, Department of Economics, Management and Quantitative Methods at Università degli Studi di Milano.
    8. Zanola, Roberto, 2000. "Public goods versus publicly provided private goods in a two-class economy," POLIS Working Papers 12, Institute of Public Policy and Public Choice - POLIS.
    9. Dennis Mueller & Peter Murrell, 1986. "Interest groups and the size of government," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 48(2), pages 125-145, January.
    10. Stanley L. Winer, 2016. "The Political Economy of Taxation: Power, Structure, Redistribution," Carleton Economic Papers 16-15, Carleton University, Department of Economics.
    11. Mathias Kifmann, 2005. "Health insurance in a democracy: Why is it public and why are premiums income related?," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 124(3), pages 283-308, September.
    12. Ferrero, Mario, 1999. "Heavy investment and high pollution as rational choices under socialism," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 15(2), pages 257-280, June.
    13. Kindsgrab, Paul M., 2022. "Do higher income taxes on top earners trickle down? A local labor markets approach," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 214(C).
    14. Florian Scheuer, 2014. "Entrepreneurial Taxation with Endogenous Entry," American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, American Economic Association, vol. 6(2), pages 126-163, May.
    15. Jose M Alonso & Rhys Andrews, 2019. "Fiscal decentralisation and local government efficiency: Does relative deprivation matter?," Environment and Planning C, , vol. 37(2), pages 360-381, March.
    16. Preston J. Miller, 1983. "Income stability and economic efficiency under alternative tax schemes," Staff Report 86, Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis.
    17. Antràs, Pol & de Gortari, Alonso & Itskhoki, Oleg, 2017. "Globalization, inequality and welfare," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 108(C), pages 387-412.
    18. George Tridimas & Stanley L. Winer, 2004. "A Contribution to the Political Economy of Government Size: 'Demand', 'Supply' and 'Political Influence'," Carleton Economic Papers 04-04, Carleton University, Department of Economics.
    19. Rexford Santerre, 1989. "Representative versus direct democracy: Are there any expenditure differences?," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 60(2), pages 145-154, February.
    20. James Ferris, 1983. "Demands for public spending: An attitudinal approach," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 40(2), pages 135-154, January.

    More about this item

    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:kap:pubcho:v:38:y:1982:i:3:p:225-241. 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: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    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.