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Top Income Shares and Budget Deficits

Author

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  • Santo Milasi

    () (“Tor Vergata” University of Rome-Faculty of Economics-Department of Economics, Law and Institutions.)

Abstract

The paper argues that the concentration of income at the top of the distribution, along with a decreasing taxation imposed on high incomes, may have affected OECD countries’ fiscal performances in recent decades. Using a panel of 17 OECD countries between 1975 and 2005, the paper presents the first reported evidence of a positive relationship between the top 1 percent income share and budget deficits. The disaggregated analysis of the budget components suggests that such result is due to a negative relationship between the concentration of income at the top and budget revenues.

Suggested Citation

  • Santo Milasi, 2014. "Top Income Shares and Budget Deficits," Rivista di Politica Economica, SIPI Spa, issue 1, pages 383-406, January-M.
    • Handle: RePEc:rpo:ripoec:y:2014:i:1:p:383-406
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Jean-Paul Fitoussi & Francesco Saraceno, 2010. "Inequality and macroeconomic performance," Working Papers hal-01069429, HAL.
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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Rémi Bazillier & Jérôme Hericourt, 2017. "The Circular Relationship Between Inequality, Leverage, And Financial Crises," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 31(2), pages 463-496, April.
    2. Carlos Bethencourt & Lars Kunze, 2015. "The political economics of redistribution, inequality and tax avoidance," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 163(3), pages 267-287, June.
    3. Rémi Bazillier & Jérôme Héricourt, 2014. "The Circular Relationship between Inequality, Leverage, and Financial Crises: Intertwined Mechanisms and Competing Evidence," Working Papers 2014-22, CEPII research center.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    budget deficits; budget revenues; income inequality; top income shares; top marginal tax rate.;

    JEL classification:

    • D31 - Microeconomics - - Distribution - - - Personal Income and Wealth Distribution
    • E62 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Macroeconomic Policy, Macroeconomic Aspects of Public Finance, and General Outlook - - - Fiscal Policy
    • H20 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - General
    • H62 - Public Economics - - National Budget, Deficit, and Debt - - - Deficit; Surplus

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