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Aggregate Instability under Labor Income Taxation and Balanced-Budget Rules: Preferences Matter

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We investigate the role of preferences in the existence of expectation-driven instability under a balanced budget rule where government spendings are financed by a tax on labor income. Considering a one-sector neoclassical growth model with a large class of preferences, we find that expectation-driven fluctuations are more likely when consumption and labor are Edgeworth substitutes. Under this property, an intermediate range of tax rates and a sufficiently low elasticity of intertemporal substitution in consumption lead to instability. Numerical simulations of the model support the conclusion that labor income taxation is a plausible source of instability in most OECD countries.

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  • Nicolas Abad & Thomas Seegmuller & Alain Venditti, 2012. "Aggregate Instability under Labor Income Taxation and Balanced-Budget Rules: Preferences Matter," AMSE Working Papers 1217, Aix-Marseille School of Economics, France, revised Apr 2012.
    • Handle: RePEc:aim:wpaimx:1217
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Indeterminacy; expectation-driven business cycles; labor income taxes; balance-budget rule; infinite-horizon model.;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • C62 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Mathematical Methods; Programming Models; Mathematical and Simulation Modeling - - - Existence and Stability Conditions of Equilibrium
    • E32 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Prices, Business Fluctuations, and Cycles - - - Business Fluctuations; Cycles
    • E62 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Macroeconomic Policy, Macroeconomic Aspects of Public Finance, and General Outlook - - - Fiscal Policy; Modern Monetary Theory

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