Optimal capital taxation revisited

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Chari, V. V.; Nicolini, Juan Pablo; Teles, Pedro
• 署名单位: University of Minnesota System; University of Minnesota Twin Cities; Federal Reserve System - USA; Federal Reserve Bank - Minneapolis; Universidad Torcuato Di Tella; Banco de Portugal; Universidade Catolica Portuguesa; Centre for Economic Policy Research - UK
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF MONETARY ECONOMICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0304-3932
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jmoneco.2019.09.015
• 发表日期: 2020
• 页码: 147-165
• 关键词: Capital income tax; time consistency; production efficiency

摘要

We revisit the question of how capital should be taxed. We allow for a rich set of tax instruments that consists of taxes widely used in practice, including consumption, dividend, capital, and labor income taxes. We restrict policies to those that respect pre-existing promises regarding the current value of wealth. We show that capital should not be taxed (i.e. there should be no intertemporal distortions), if households have preferences that are standard in the macroeconomics literature. We show that Ramsey outcomes that must respect such promises are time consistent. We show that the presumption in the literature that capital should be taxed for some length of time arises because the tax system is restricted. (C) 2019 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.