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Capital gains taxation and asset price volatility

Author

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  • Pau Belda

    (Bank of England)

Abstract

Do capital gains tax cuts destabilize or stabilize asset prices? In an asset pricing model with heterogeneous agents and realization-based taxation, a tax cut has two opposing effects. It dampens volatility by reducing realization-based trading frictions, but also amplifies it by strengthening the pass through from expectations to prices, fuelling self-fulfilling fluctuations. Estimated on US stock-market data, the model implies that the sequence of tax cuts since the 1970s triggered a net increase in volatility of about +35%, driven primarily by stronger belief-to-price pass-through. Policy experiments suggest a tax on unrealized gains robustly reduces volatility, whereas a financial transaction tax has mixed effects.

Suggested Citation

  • Pau Belda, 2026. "Capital gains taxation and asset price volatility," Bank of England Staff Working Paper series 1200, Bank of England.
    • Handle: RePEc:boe:boeewp:023541
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    File URL: https://www.bankofengland.co.uk/-/media/boe/files/working-paper/2026/capital-gains-taxation-and-asset-price-volatility.pdf
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    Keywords

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    JEL classification:

    • D83 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Search; Learning; Information and Knowledge; Communication; Belief; Unawareness
    • D84 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Expectations; Speculations
    • E44 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Money and Interest Rates - - - Financial Markets and the Macroeconomy
    • G12 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Asset Pricing; Trading Volume; Bond Interest Rates
    • G14 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Information and Market Efficiency; Event Studies; Insider Trading
    • H20 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - General
    • H31 - Public Economics - - Fiscal Policies and Behavior of Economic Agents - - - Household

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