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The Dynamic Effects of Personal and Corporate Income Tax Changes in the United States

Author

Listed:
  • Morten Ravn

    (University College London)

  • Karel Mertens

    (Cornell University)

Abstract

This paper estimates the dynamic effects of changes in taxes in the United States. We dis- tinguish between the effects of changes in personal and corporate income taxes using a new narrative account of federal tax liability changes in these two tax components. We develop an estimator in which narratively identified tax changes are used as proxies for structural tax shocks and apply it to quarterly post WWII US data. We find that short run output effects of tax shocks are large and that it is important to distinguish between different types of taxes when considering their impact on the labor market and the major expenditure components.

Suggested Citation

  • Morten Ravn & Karel Mertens, 2012. "The Dynamic Effects of Personal and Corporate Income Tax Changes in the United States," 2012 Meeting Papers 638, Society for Economic Dynamics.
    • Handle: RePEc:red:sed012:638
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • E23 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Consumption, Saving, Production, Employment, and Investment - - - Production
    • E62 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Macroeconomic Policy, Macroeconomic Aspects of Public Finance, and General Outlook - - - Fiscal Policy; Modern Monetary Theory
    • H24 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Personal Income and Other Nonbusiness Taxes and Subsidies
    • H25 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Business Taxes and Subsidies
    • H31 - Public Economics - - Fiscal Policies and Behavior of Economic Agents - - - Household
    • H32 - Public Economics - - Fiscal Policies and Behavior of Economic Agents - - - Firm

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