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Time-consistent Fiscal Policy under Heterogeneity: Conflicting or Common Interests?

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  • Konstantinos Angelopoulos
  • Jim Malley
  • Apostolis Philippopoulos

Abstract

This paper studies the aggregate and distributional implications of Markov-perfect tax-spending policy in a neoclassical growth model with capitalists and workers. Focusing on the long run, our main findings are: (i) it is optimal for a benevolent government, which cares equally about its citizens, to tax capital heavily and to subsidise labour; (ii) a Pareto improving means to reduce inefficiently high capital taxation under discretion is for the government to place greater weight on the welfare of capitalists; (iii) capitalists and workers preferences, regarding the optimal amount of "capitalist bias", are not aligned implying a conflict of interests.

Suggested Citation

  • Konstantinos Angelopoulos & Jim Malley & Apostolis Philippopoulos, 2011. "Time-consistent Fiscal Policy under Heterogeneity: Conflicting or Common Interests?," CESifo Working Paper Series 3444, CESifo.
    • Handle: RePEc:ces:ceswps:_3444
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. George Economides & Anastasios Rizos, 2018. "Optimal Taxation and the Tradeoff Between Efficiency and Redistribution," Review of Economic Analysis, Digital Initiatives at the University of Waterloo Library, vol. 10(1), pages 1-43, January.
    2. Costas N. Kanellopoulos, 2012. "Employment and worker flows during the financial crisis," Economic Bulletin, Bank of Greece, issue 36, pages 31-41, April.
    3. Angelopoulos, Konstantinos & Jiang, Wei & Malley, James, 2011. "The distributional consequences of tax reforms under market distortions," SIRE Discussion Papers 2011-73, Scottish Institute for Research in Economics (SIRE).
    4. Papaspyrou Theodoros, 2012. "EMU sustainability and the prospects of peripheral economies," Economic Bulletin, Bank of Greece, issue 36, pages 7-29, April.
    5. Jiang Wei, 2019. "Optimal taxation under equilibrium unemployment and economic profits," The B.E. Journal of Macroeconomics, De Gruyter, vol. 19(1), pages 1-21, January.
    6. Angelopoulos, Konstantinos & Fernandez, Bernardo X. & Malley, James R., 2010. "The Distributional Consequences of Supply-Side Reforms in General Equilibrium," SIRE Discussion Papers 2010-85, Scottish Institute for Research in Economics (SIRE).
    7. Faidon Kalfaoglou, 2012. "Bank capital adequacy framework," Economic Bulletin, Bank of Greece, issue 36, pages 43-81, April.
    8. Wei Jiang, 2014. "Optimal taxation and labour wedge in models with equilibrium unemployment," Studies in Economics 1407, School of Economics, University of Kent.
    9. Angelopoulos, Konstantinos & Jiang, Wei & Malley, James R., 2013. "Tax reforms under market distortions in product and labour markets," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 61(C), pages 28-42.
    10. George Economides & Apostolis Philippopoulos, 2012. "Are User Fees Really Regressive?," CESifo Working Paper Series 3875, CESifo.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    optimal fiscal policy; Markov-perfect equilibrium; heterogeneous agents;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • E62 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Macroeconomic Policy, Macroeconomic Aspects of Public Finance, and General Outlook - - - Fiscal Policy; Modern Monetary Theory
    • H21 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Efficiency; Optimal Taxation

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