IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/ecolab/v32y2021i2p190-208.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

A Kaleckian wealth tax to support a Green New Deal

Author

Listed:
  • Susan Schroeder

Abstract

Green New Deals are being widely discussed as both a means to confront climate change and to improve aspects of social well-being. An important facet of the discussion is how they should be financed. The negative impacts of Covid-19 on national budgets and sovereign debt question whether the implementation of Green New Deals is feasible if austerity needs to be introduced to achieve sustainability. This article assesses whether a wealth tax based upon the work of Michal Kalecki could help avoid austerity measures and facilitate the introduction of Green New Deals. While wealth taxes have traditionally been defined on net worth or assets to reduce wealth inequality, the formulation is meant to be equitable by applying to gross wealth or assets. Estimates are calculated for the United States and turn out to be quite modest. The approach not only generates revenue to cover expected net interest outlays on national debt, but additional revenue to pay down portions of it and/or support green initiatives, such as Biden’s de-carbonisation policy. The article concludes with a discussion of challenges for the tax’s effectiveness. JEL Codes: H2, H3, B2, B3

Suggested Citation

  • Susan Schroeder, 2021. "A Kaleckian wealth tax to support a Green New Deal," The Economic and Labour Relations Review, , vol. 32(2), pages 190-208, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:ecolab:v:32:y:2021:i:2:p:190-208
    DOI: 10.1177/10353046211017350
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/10353046211017350
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/10353046211017350?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
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Yeva Nersisyan & L. Randall Wray, 2019. "How to Pay for the Green New Deal," Economics Working Paper Archive wp_931, Levy Economics Institute.
    2. Nicolas Zorn & Steven Pressman, 2020. "A Consensus on Taxing the Rich? Comparing Mainstream Economics, Piketty and Post-Keynesian Economics," International Journal of Political Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 49(1), pages 43-61, January.
    3. Gabriel Zucman, 2014. "Taxing across Borders: Tracking Personal Wealth and Corporate Profits," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 28(4), pages 121-148, Fall.
    4. Gabriel Zucman, 2013. "The Missing Wealth of Nations: Are Europe and the U.S. net Debtors or net Creditors?," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 128(3), pages 1321-1364.
    5. Congressional Budget Office, 2020. "Federal Net Interest Costs: A Primer," Reports 56780, Congressional Budget Office.
    6. Engelbert Stockhammer, 2004. "Financialisation and the slowdown of accumulation," Cambridge Journal of Economics, Cambridge Political Economy Society, vol. 28(5), pages 719-741, September.
    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. Ergen, Timur & Kohl, Sebastian & Braun, Benjamin, 2021. "Firm foundations: The statistical footprint of multinational corporations as a problem for political economy," MPIfG Discussion Paper 21/5, Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies.
    2. Menkhoff, Lukas & Miethe, Jakob, 2019. "Tax evasion in new disguise? Examining tax havens' international bank deposits," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 176, pages 53-78.
    3. Andreas Fagereng & Luigi Guiso & Davide Malacrino & Luigi Pistaferri, 2020. "Heterogeneity and Persistence in Returns to Wealth," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 88(1), pages 115-170, January.
    4. Alvaredo, Facundo & Atkinson, Anthony B. & Morelli, Salvatore, 2018. "Top wealth shares in the UK over more than a century," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 162(C), pages 26-47.
    5. Becker, Johannes & Wilson, John D., 2023. "Tax competition with two tax instruments — and tax base erosion," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 225(C).
    6. Clara Martínez Toledano, 2020. "House Price Cycles, Wealth Inequality and Portfolio Reshuffling," Working Papers hal-02876979, HAL.
    7. Vincent Bouvatier & Gunther Capelle-Blancard & Anne-Laure Delatte, 2017. "Banks Defy Gravity in Tax Havens," Université Paris1 Panthéon-Sorbonne (Post-Print and Working Papers) hal-03101505, HAL.
    8. Alejandro Esteller & Amedeo Piolatto & Matthew D. Rablen, 2016. "Taxing high-income earners: tax avoidance and mobility," IFS Working Papers W16/07, Institute for Fiscal Studies.
    9. Abroskin A.S. (Аброскин, А.С.) & Abroskina N.A. (Аброскина, Н.А.), 2016. "Methods of Analysis of Shadow of Cross-Border Capital Flows [Методы Анализа Теневых Трансграничных Потоков Капитала]," Working Papers 2134, Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration.
    10. Filip Novokmet & Thomas Piketty & Gabriel Zucman, 2018. "From Soviets to oligarchs: inequality and property in Russia 1905-2016," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 16(2), pages 189-223, June.
    11. Clara Martínez Toledano, 2017. "House Price Cycles, Wealth Inequality and Portfolio Reshuffling," Working Papers halshs-02797549, HAL.
    12. Burdín, Gabriel & De Rosa, Mauricio & Vigorito, Andrea & Vilá, Joan, 2022. "Falling inequality and the growing capital income share: Reconciling divergent trends in survey and tax data," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 152(C).
    13. Thomas Blanchet & Lucas Chancel, 2016. "National Accounts Series Methodology," PSE Working Papers halshs-02794166, HAL.
    14. Guiso, Luigi & Pistaferri, Luigi & Fagereng, Andreas, 2022. "Assortative Mating and Wealth Inequality," CEPR Discussion Papers 17148, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    15. Niels Johannesen & Patrick Langetieg & Daniel Reck & Max Risch & Joel Slemrod, 2020. "Taxing Hidden Wealth: The Consequences of US Enforcement Initiatives on Evasive Foreign Accounts," American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, American Economic Association, vol. 12(3), pages 312-346, August.
    16. Huizinga, Harry & Todtenhaupt, Maximilian & Voget, Johannes & Wagner, Wolf, 2022. "Taxation and the external wealth of nations: Evidence from bilateral portfolio holdings," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 122(C).
    17. Arjan Lejour & Jan Möhlmann & Maarten ’t Riet, 2022. "The immeasurable tax gains by Dutch shell companies," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 29(2), pages 316-357, April.
    18. D’Avino, Carmela, 2023. "Counteracting offshore tax evasion: Evidence from the foreign account tax compliance act," International Review of Law and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 73(C).
    19. Ronen Palan & Hannah Petersen & Richard Phillips, 2023. "Arbitrage spaces in the offshore world: Layering, ‘fuses’ and partitioning of the legal structure of modern firms," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 55(4), pages 1041-1061, June.
    20. Amutabi, Cyprian, 2023. "Domestic Resource Mobilization for Economic Development in Africa: Challenges, Policy Options, and Prospects in the New Horizon," MPRA Paper 118372, University Library of Munich, Germany.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Austerity; Biden; Green New Deal; Kalecki; wealth tax;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • H2 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue
    • H3 - Public Economics - - Fiscal Policies and Behavior of Economic Agents
    • B2 - Schools of Economic Thought and Methodology - - History of Economic Thought since 1925
    • B3 - Schools of Economic Thought and Methodology - - History of Economic Thought: Individuals

    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:sae:ecolab:v:32:y:2021:i:2:p:190-208. 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: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    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.