IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/
MyIDEAS: Log in (now much improved!) to save this paper

The economics of taxing net wealth: A survey of the issues

Author Info

  • Schnellenbach, Jan

Abstract

This paper surveys possible motivations for having a net wealth tax. After giving a short overview over the state of wealth taxation in OECD countries, we discuss both popular arguments for such a tax, as well as economic arguments. It is argued that classical normative principles of taxation known from public economics cannot give a sound justification for a net wealth tax. The efficiency-related effects are also discussed and shown to be theoretically ambiguous, while empirical evidence hints at a negative effect on GDP growth. Finally, it is argued that despite of widespread and persistent lobbying for a revitalization of the net wealth tax, this is unlikely to happen due to political economy constraints.

Download Info

If you experience problems downloading a file, check if you have the proper application to view it first. In case of further problems read the IDEAS help page. Note that these files are not on the IDEAS site. Please be patient as the files may be large.

File URL: https://econstor.eu/bitstream/10419/67482/1/732096707.pdf
Download Restriction: no

Paper provided by Walter Eucken Institut e.V. in its series Freiburg Discussion Papers on Constitutional Economics with number 12/5.

as
in new window

Length:
Date of creation: 2012
Date of revision:
Handle: RePEc:zbw:aluord:125
Contact details of provider: Postal:
Goethestrasse 10, D-79100 Freiburg im Breisgau

Phone: +49.761.79097-0
Fax: +49.761.79097-97
Web page: http://www.walter-eucken-institut.de/
Email:


More information through EDIRC

Keywords: net wealth tax; wealth; inequality; redistribution;

Find related papers by JEL classification:

  • H24 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Personal Income and Other Nonbusiness Taxes and Subsidies
  • D31 - Microeconomics - - Distribution - - - Personal Income and Wealth Distribution
  • H23 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Externalities; Redistributive Effects; Environmental Taxes and Subsidies
  • H21 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Efficiency; Optimal Taxation
  • H22 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Incidence

This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

References listed on IDEAS
Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:

as in new window
  1. Narayana R. Kocherlakota, 2005. "Zero Expected Wealth Taxes: A Mirrlees Approach to Dynamic Optimal Taxation," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 73(5), pages 1587-1621, 09.
  2. Christoph A. Schaltegger & Frank Somogyi & Jan-Egbert Sturm, 2009. "Tax Competition and Income Sorting: Evidence from the Zurich Metropolitan Area," KOF Working papers 09-240, KOF Swiss Economic Institute, ETH Zurich.
  3. Hansson, Åsa, 2005. "The Wealth Tax and Entrepreneurial Activity," Working Papers 2005:43, Lund University, Department of Economics.
  4. Jukka Pirttilä & Roope Uusitalo, 2010. "A 'Leaky Bucket' in the Real World: Estimating Inequality Aversion using Survey Data," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 77(305), pages 60-76, 01.
  5. Ihori, Toshihiro, 2001. "Wealth taxation and economic growth," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 79(1), pages 129-148, January.
  6. Albanesi, Stefania & Sleet, Christopher, 2003. "Dynamic Optimal Taxation with Private Information," CEPR Discussion Papers 4006, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
  7. Asa Hansson, 2008. "The Wealth Tax and Entrepreneurial Activity," The Journal of Entrepreneurship, Entrepreneurship Development Institute of India, vol. 17(2), pages 139-156, September.
  8. Harms, Philipp & Zink, Stefan, 2003. "Limits to redistribution in a democracy: a survey," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 19(4), pages 651-668, November.
  9. Anthony Atkinson & Thomas Piketty & Emmanuel Saez, 2011. "Top Incomes in the Long Run of History," Post-Print halshs-00754557, HAL.
  10. James A. Yunker, 2010. "Capital wealth taxation as a potential remedy for excessive capital wealth inequality," Journal of Post Keynesian Economics, M.E. Sharpe, Inc., vol. 33(1), pages 83-104, October.
  11. Schmidheiny, Kurt, 2003. "Income Segregation and Local Progressive Taxation: Empirical Evidence from Switzerland," HWWA Discussion Papers 248, Hamburg Institute of International Economics (HWWA).
  12. Aaron, Henry J. & Munnell, Alicia H., 1992. "Reassessing the Role for Wealth Transfer Taxes," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association, vol. 45(2), pages 119-43, June.
  13. Peter Birch Sørensen, 2007. "Can Capital Income Taxes Survive? And Should They?," CESifo Economic Studies, CESifo, vol. 53(2), pages 172-228, June.
  14. Binmore, Ken & Shaked, Avner, 2010. "Experimental Economics: Where Next? Rejoinder," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 73(1), pages 120-121, January.
  15. Nico A. Hansen & Anke S. Kessler, 2001. "The Political Geography of Tax H(e)avens and Tax Hells," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 91(4), pages 1103-1115, September.
  16. Vanberg, Viktor J., 2005. "Market and state: the perspective of constitutional political economy," Journal of Institutional Economics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 1(01), pages 23-49, June.
  17. Keith G. Banting, 1991. "The Politics of Wealth Taxes," Canadian Public Policy, University of Toronto Press, vol. 17(3), pages 351-367, September.
  18. Stefan Homburg, 1999. "Competition and Co-ordination in International Capital Income Taxation," FinanzArchiv: Public Finance Analysis, Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen, vol. 56(1), pages 1-17, March.
  19. Binmore, Ken & Shaked, Avner, 2010. "Experimental economics: Where next?," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 73(1), pages 87-100, January.
  20. Hans Peter Gruner & Giacomo Corneo, 2000. "Social Limits to Redistribution," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 90(5), pages 1491-1507, December.
  21. Bruno S. Frey, 2008. "Happiness: A Revolution in Economics," MIT Press Books, The MIT Press, edition 1, volume 1, number 0262062771, December.
Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

The CitEc project has not yet found citations to this item.

This item is not listed on Wikipedia, on a reading list or among the top items on IDEAS.

Access and download statistics

When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:zbw:aluord:125. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: (ZBW - German National Library of Economics)

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 references are entirely missing, you can add them using this form.

If the full references list an item that is present in RePEc, but the system did not link 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 profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

This information is provided to you by IDEAS at the Research Division of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis using RePEc data.