IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/fda/fdaddt/2025-13.html

Measuring the effectiveness of statutory tax rates as generators of revenue and progressivity

Author

Listed:
  • José Félix Sanz Sanz

Abstract

This paper analyses the effectiveness of statutory marginal rates in generating revenue and (local) progressivity in personal income taxation. Utilising an analytical approach, we derive expressions for the elasticity of the average tax rate and its progression in response to changes in marginal tax rates. The analysis recognises the endogeneity between taxable income and marginal rates (behaviour) and is carried out for the individual taxpayer and the population aggregate. Regarding tax collection, we confirm a low elasticity of the average tax rate to marginal tax rates, individually and in the aggregate. Regarding progressivity, when the marginal rate of a given bracket increases, the progressivity of this specific bracket is heightened. However, it decreases the progressivity of the brackets above while leaving the progressivity in the brackets below unchanged. In other words, increasing the marginal tax rate in a given bracket is “backwards neutral” but “forward regressive”. Finally, to show the use of the analytical expressions derived, they are applied to a Spanish microdata set of tax returns.

Suggested Citation

  • José Félix Sanz Sanz, 2025. "Measuring the effectiveness of statutory tax rates as generators of revenue and progressivity," Working Papers 2025-13, FEDEA.
    • Handle: RePEc:fda:fdaddt:2025-13
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://documentos.fedea.net/pubs/dt/2025/dt2025-13.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Raj Chetty, 2009. "Sufficient Statistics for Welfare Analysis: A Bridge Between Structural and Reduced-Form Methods," Annual Review of Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 1(1), pages 451-488, May.
    2. Kleven, Henrik Jacobsen & Schultz, Esben Anton, 2014. "Estimating taxable income responses using Danish tax reforms," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 66122, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    3. María Arrazola & José de Hevia & José Félix Sanz-Sanz, 2019. "Assessing tax reforms through the elasticity of reported income: an empirical analysis for Spain," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 51(56), pages 6040-6053, December.
    4. Raj Chetty, 2009. "Is the Taxable Income Elasticity Sufficient to Calculate Deadweight Loss? The Implications of Evasion and Avoidance," American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, American Economic Association, vol. 1(2), pages 31-52, August.
    5. John Creedy & Norman Gemmell, 2006. "Modelling Tax Revenue Growth," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 4073.
    6. Austan Goolsbee, 1999. "Evidence on the High-Income Laffer Curve from Six Decades of Tax Reform," Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, Economic Studies Program, The Brookings Institution, vol. 30(2), pages 1-64.
    7. Kakwani, Nanak C, 1977. "Applications of Lorenz Curves in Economic Analysis," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 45(3), pages 719-727, April.
    8. Feldstein, Martin, 1995. "The Effect of Marginal Tax Rates on Taxable Income: A Panel Study of the 1986 Tax Reform Act," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 103(3), pages 551-572, June.
    9. Morini, Matteo & Pellegrino, Simone, 2018. "Personal income tax reforms: A genetic algorithm approach," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 264(3), pages 994-1004.
    10. Henrik Jacobsen Kleven & Esben Anton Schultz, 2014. "Estimating Taxable Income Responses Using Danish Tax Reforms," American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, American Economic Association, vol. 6(4), pages 271-301, November.
    11. Johannes Hermanus Kemp, 2019. "The Elasticity of Taxable Income: The Case of South Africa," South African Journal of Economics, Economic Society of South Africa, vol. 87(4), pages 417-449, December.
    12. Gruber, Jon & Saez, Emmanuel, 2002. "The elasticity of taxable income: evidence and implications," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 84(1), pages 1-32, April.
    13. Emmanuel Saez & Joel Slemrod & Seth H. Giertz, 2012. "The Elasticity of Taxable Income with Respect to Marginal Tax Rates: A Critical Review," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 50(1), pages 3-50, March.
    14. Jorge Onrubia & Fidel Picos-Sánchez & María Carmen Rodado, 2014. "Rethinking the Pfähler–Lambert decomposition to analyse real-world personal income taxes," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 21(4), pages 796-812, August.
    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. Kristoffer Berg & Thor O. Thoresen, 2020. "Problematic response margins in the estimation of the elasticity of taxable income," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 27(3), pages 721-752, June.
    2. Michaël Sicsic, 2023. "L’élasticité de l’offre de travail et des revenus dans la littérature. Une analyse comparative des méthodes et des résultats sur données microéconomiques," Revue de l'OFCE, Presses de Sciences-Po, vol. 0(4), pages 5-40.
    3. Carina Neisser, 2021. "The Elasticity of Taxable Income: A Meta-Regression Analysis [The top 1% in international and historical perspective]," The Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 131(640), pages 3365-3391.
    4. Sanz-Sanz, José Félix, 2016. "The Laffer curve in schedular multi-rate income taxes with non-genuine allowances: An application to Spain," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 55(C), pages 42-56.
    5. Miguel Almunia & David Lopez-Rodriguez, 2019. "The elasticity of taxable income in Spain: 1999–2014," SERIEs: Journal of the Spanish Economic Association, Springer;Spanish Economic Association, vol. 10(3), pages 281-320, November.
    6. Philipp Doerrenberg & Andreas Peichl & Sebastian Siegloch, 2017. "The Elasticity of Taxable Income in the Presence of Deduction Possibilities," NBER Chapters, in: Personal Income Taxation and Household Behavior (TAPES), National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    7. Kosonen, Tuomas & Matikka, Tuomas, 2020. "Discrete Labor Supply: Empirical Evidence and Implications," Working Papers 132, VATT Institute for Economic Research.
    8. Jongen, Egbert L. W. & Stoel, Maaike, 2019. "The Elasticity of Taxable Labour Income in the Netherlands," IZA Discussion Papers 12090, IZA Network @ LISER.
    9. Doerrenberg, Philipp & Peichl, Andreas & Siegloch, Sebastian, 2014. "Sufficient Statistic or Not? The Elasticity of Taxable Income in the Presence of Deduction Possibilities," IZA Discussion Papers 8554, IZA Network @ LISER.
    10. Nicole Bosch, 2019. "The Incidence of Pension Contributions," CPB Discussion Paper 388.rdf, CPB Netherlands Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis.
    11. Hans Schytte Sigaard, 2022. "Labor Supply Responsiveness to Tax Reforms," Economics Working Papers 2022-04, Department of Economics and Business Economics, Aarhus University.
    12. Graber, Michael & Mogstad, Magne & Torsvik, Gaute & Vestad, Ola, 2022. "Behavioural responses to income taxation in Norway," Memorandum 4/2022, Oslo University, Department of Economics.
    13. Thoresen, Thor O. & Vattø, Trine E., 2015. "Validation of the discrete choice labor supply model by methods of the new tax responsiveness literature," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 37(C), pages 38-53.
    14. Miyazaki, Takeshi & Ishida, Ryo, 2022. "Estimating the elasticity of taxable income: Evidence from top Japanese taxpayers," Japan and the World Economy, Elsevier, vol. 61(C).
    15. Michaël Sicsic, 2022. "Does labour income react more to income tax or means‐tested benefits reforms?," Fiscal Studies, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 43(3), pages 291-319, September.
    16. Egbert Jongen & Maaike Stoel, 2016. "The elasticity of taxable income in the Netherlands," CPB Discussion Paper 337, CPB Netherlands Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis.
    17. Nicole Bosch & Casper Ewijk & Maja Micevska Scharf & Sander Muns, 2022. "The Incidence of Pension Contributions: A Panel Based Analysis of the Impact of Pension Contributions on Labor Cost, Wages and Labor Supply," De Economist, Springer, vol. 170(1), pages 107-132, February.
    18. Nicole Bosch, 2019. "The Incidence of Pension Contributions," CPB Discussion Paper 388, CPB Netherlands Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis.
    19. Tuomas Matikka, 2018. "Elasticity of Taxable Income: Evidence from Changes in Municipal Income Tax Rates in Finland," Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 120(3), pages 943-973, July.
    20. He, Daixin & Peng, Langchuan & Wang, Xiaxin, 2021. "Understanding the elasticity of taxable income: A tale of two approaches," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 197(C).

    More about this item

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:fda:fdaddt:2025-13. 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: Marta Fernández (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.fedea.net .

    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.