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La courbe de Laffer dix ans après : un essai de bilan critique

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  • Bruno Théret
  • Didier Uri

Abstract

[eng] The Laffer curve ten years after : a tentative critical survey. . It is an « exoteric » version of the Laffer curve which has got a large audience. So have been forgotten the specifie assumptions on which it is based and which determines its pertinence. This article summarizes the mainly anglo-savon debate about the original « esoteric » version of this curve and shows its unrealism. The inverse relationship between tax rates and tax receipts only exists, indeed, in a restrictive, static and a-temporal model ; but in this case, the usual estimations of the factor supply and demand elasticities point out that the supposed critical rates of taxation are very far away from reality. When time is taken into account, neither any theoretical conclusion can be formulated, nor any serious empirical evidence can be established, even for a reduced form of the original model. [fre] La courbe de Laffer dix ans après : un essai de bilan critique. . C'est dans sa version « exotérique » que la courbe de Laffer a connu un succès grand public. Ont ainsi été largement oubliées les hypothèses sim­plificatrices qui la fondent et qui déterminent ses conditions de validité. Aussi cet article reprend-il le débat, principalement anglo-saxon, autour de la version « ésotérique » originale de cette courbe dont il montre, ce faisant, l'irréalisme. D'une part, en effet, une relation inverse entre taux d'imposition et recettes fiscales n'apparaît que dans le cadre d'un modèle restrictif, statique et a-temporel ; les évaluations habituelles des élasticités d'offre et de demande des facteurs aboutissent alors à réfuter le caractère de proximité des taux supposés critiques d'imposition. D'autre part, la prise en compte de la dimension temporelle non seulement rend indéterminées les conclusions du modèle théorique original, mais n'offre pas non plus de justification empirique sérieuse, ne serait-ce que d'une forme réduite de ce modèle.

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  • Bruno Théret & Didier Uri, 1988. "La courbe de Laffer dix ans après : un essai de bilan critique," Revue Économique, Programme National Persée, vol. 39(4), pages 753-808.
    • Handle: RePEc:prs:reveco:reco_0035-2764_1988_num_39_4_409096
    DOI: 10.3406/reco.1988.409096
    Note: DOI:10.3406/reco.1988.409096
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    Cited by:

    1. Jean-Marie Monnier, 2000. "L'équivalence fiscale des revenus et la réforme de l'impôt sur le revenu," Post-Print hal-00677605, HAL.
    2. Jean-Marie Monnier, 2000. "L'équivalence fiscale des revenus et la réforme de l'impôt sur le revenu," Université Paris1 Panthéon-Sorbonne (Post-Print and Working Papers) hal-00677605, HAL.
    3. Jean-Marie Monnier, 2000. "Harmonisation des fiscalités et structures fiscales européennes entre 1988 et 1996," Post-Print hal-00677603, HAL.
    4. Enrico Colombatto, 2015. "An alternative to the Laffer curve: Theory and consequences," The Review of Austrian Economics, Springer;Society for the Development of Austrian Economics, vol. 28(1), pages 75-92, March.
    5. Jean-Marie Monnier, 2000. "Harmonisation des fiscalités et structures fiscales européennes entre 1988 et 1996," Université Paris1 Panthéon-Sorbonne (Post-Print and Working Papers) hal-00677603, HAL.

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