The Introduction of the Income Tax, Fiscal Capacity, and Migration: Evidence from US States

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Cassidy, Traviss; Dincecco, Mark; Troiano, Ugo Antonio
• 署名单位: University of Alabama System; University of Alabama Tuscaloosa; University of Michigan System; University of Michigan; University of California System; University of California Riverside
• 刊物名称: AMERICAN ECONOMIC JOURNAL-ECONOMIC POLICY
• ISSN/ISSBN: 1945-7731
• DOI: 10.1257/pol.20210388
• 发表日期: 2024
• 页码: 359-393
• 关键词: top earners evidence; economic-development; internal migration; long-run; taxation; INNOVATION; mobility; decline; scheme

摘要

We evaluate how fiscal capacity and migration respond to the introduction of the individual income tax, drawing on new panel data on US states from 1900 to 2010. We find that the introduction of the income tax increased revenue per capita by 12 percent in the short term, 15 percent in the medium term, and 17 percent in the long term. The absolute level of revenue, however, did not significantly change over the long term for post -World War II adopters. To explain this, we show that the introduction of the income tax induced significant outmigration to non -income-tax states by middle- and high -earning households.