IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/nbr/nberwo/1060.html

Measuring the Average Marginal Tax Rate from the Individual Income Tax

Author

Listed:
  • Robert J. Barro
  • Chaipat Sahasakul

Abstract

The economic effects of taxation depend on the configuration of marginal tax rates. We consider here the appropriate measure of a marginal tax rate for the federal individual income tax, which has a graduated-rate structure and allows for numerous legal and illegal deductions from total income.Our conclusion is that the explicit marginal rate from the tax schedule is the right concept for many purposes.Hence, we construct approximately weighted averages of these marginal tax rates for 1916-80. When weighted by adjusted gross income, the arithmetic average of marginal tax rates is 5% in 1920, 2%in 1930, 6% in 1940, 20% in 1950, 23% in 1960, 24% in 1970, and 30% in 1980.We also discuss the dispersion of marginal tax rates, as well as the behavior of average tax rates and deductions from taxable income. One noteworthy result concerns the fraction of adjusted gross income that accrues to families that face a marginal tax rate of at least 35%. This fraction quadruples from 1964 to 1980.

Suggested Citation

  • Robert J. Barro & Chaipat Sahasakul, 1983. "Measuring the Average Marginal Tax Rate from the Individual Income Tax," NBER Working Papers 1060, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    • Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:1060
    Note: EFG
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.nber.org/papers/w1060.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Aris Protopapadakis, "undated". "Some Indirect Evidence on Effective Capital Gains Tax Rates," Rodney L. White Center for Financial Research Working Papers 19-82, Wharton School Rodney L. White Center for Financial Research.
    2. Miller, Merton H. & Scholes, Myron S., 1978. "Dividends and taxes," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 6(4), pages 333-364, December.
    3. Joines, Douglas H, 1981. "Estimates of Effective Marginal Tax Rates on Factor Incomes," The Journal of Business, University of Chicago Press, vol. 54(2), pages 191-226, April.
    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. Huang-Meier, Winifred & Freeman, Mark C., 2015. "Aggregate dividends and consumption smoothing," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 42(C), pages 324-335.
    2. Sven-Olov Daunfeldt & Carina Selander & Magnus Wikstrom, 2009. "Taxation, Dividend Payments and Ex-Day Price-Changes," Multinational Finance Journal, Multinational Finance Journal, vol. 13(1-2), pages 135-154, March-Jun.
    3. Thomas McCluskey & Aoife Broderick & Amanda Boyle & Bruce Burton & David Power, 2010. "Evidence on Irish financial analysts' and fund managers' views about dividends," Qualitative Research in Financial Markets, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 2(2), pages 80-99, June.
    4. Robert E.G. Nigol, 1992. "The Dividend Puzzle: An Australian Solution?," Australian Accounting Review, CPA Australia, vol. 1(4), pages 42-55, November.
    5. Clemens Sialm, 2009. "Tax Changes and Asset Pricing," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 99(4), pages 1356-1383, September.
    6. Jonathan Heathcote, 2003. "On the Distributional Effects of Reducing Capital Taxes (previously: Factor Taxation with Heterogeneous Agents)," Working Papers gueconwpa~03-03-22, Georgetown University, Department of Economics.
    7. Clemens Sialm & Hanjiang Zhang, 2020. "Tax‐Efficient Asset Management: Evidence from Equity Mutual Funds," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 75(2), pages 735-777, April.
    8. H.Kent Baker & Gary E. Powell & E.Theodore Veit, 2002. "Revisiting the dividend puzzle," Review of Financial Economics, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 11(4), pages 241-261.
    9. Ellen R. McGrattan & Richard Rogerson & Randall Wright, 1993. "Household production and taxation in the stochastic growth model," Staff Report 166, Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis.
    10. Rodrigo Suescún M., 1995. "Growth, Welfare Costs and Aggregate Fluctuations in Economies with Monetary Taxation," Borradores de Economia 036, Banco de la Republica de Colombia.
    11. Steve Bond & Lucy Chennells & Michael Devereux, 1995. "Company dividends and taxes in the UK," Fiscal Studies, Institute for Fiscal Studies, vol. 16(3), pages 1-18, August.
    12. Roberto Ellery Jr. & Victor Gomes, 2014. "Fiscal Policy, Supply Shocks and Economic Expansion in Brazil from 2003 to 2007," Brazilian Business Review, Fucape Business School, vol. 11(3), pages 53-75, June.
    13. Aaro Hazak, 2006. "Dividend Decision under Distributed Profit Taxation: Investorís Perspective," Working Papers 145, Tallinn School of Economics and Business Administration, Tallinn University of Technology.
    14. Jakub Kwiatkowski, 2017. "R&D activity and dividend policy of companies listed on the Warsaw Stock Exchange," Working Papers of Economics of European Integration Division 1702, The Univeristy of Gdansk, Faculty of Economics, Economics of European Integration Division.
    15. Hakkio, Craig S. & Rush, Mark & Schmidt, Timothy J., 1996. "The marginal income tax rate schedule from 1930 to 1990," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 38(1), pages 117-138, August.
    16. Jeremy I. Bulow & Myron S. Scholes, 1983. "Who Owns the Assets in a Defined-Benefit Pension Plan?," NBER Chapters, in: Financial Aspects of the United States Pension System, pages 17-36, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    17. Natalya Delcoure & Ross Dickens, 2004. "REIT and REOC Systematic Risk Sensitivity," Journal of Real Estate Research, American Real Estate Society, vol. 26(3), pages 237-254.
    18. Nutahara, Kengo, 2015. "Laffer curves in Japan," Journal of the Japanese and International Economies, Elsevier, vol. 36(C), pages 56-72.
    19. Lee, King Fuei, 2018. "Peer Effects on Firm Dividend Policies in Taiwan," MPRA Paper 103102, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    20. Robert S. Harris & John J. Pringle, 1983. "Implications Of Miller'S Argument For Capital Budgeting," Journal of Financial Research, Southern Finance Association;Southwestern Finance Association, vol. 6(1), pages 13-23, March.

    More about this item

    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:nbr:nberwo:1060. 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: the person in charge (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/nberrus.html .

    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.