Fiscal federalism revisited

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Blackorby, C; Brett, C
• 署名单位: University of British Columbia; University of Essex
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF ECONOMIC THEORY
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0022-0531
• DOI: 10.1006/jeth.2000.2643
• 发表日期: 2000
• 页码: 300-317
• 关键词: Fiscal federalism; Tax reform; production efficiency

摘要

We analyze how constitutional restrictions on tax base within a federation affect the nature of Pareto-improving directions or tax reform and the design of optimal federal taxes. We show that constraints on federal taxation entail production, inefficiency at the optimum. except under very restrictive circumstances. In passing, we show that using consumer prices as control variables-a standard procedure in tax-reform analysis-rather than the taxes themselves, leads to incorrect conclusions when not all taxes or prices can be controlled. Journal of Economic Literature Classification Numbers: D61, H21, H70. (C) 2000 Academic Press.