Compositional and dynamic Laffer effects in models with constant returns to scale

Anders Fredriksson

No 2007:2, Research Papers in Economics from Stockholm University, Department of Economics

Abstract: There is a renewed interest in the dynamic effects of tax cuts on government revenue. The possibility of tax cuts paying for themselves over time definitely seems like an attractive option for policy makers. This paper looks at what conditions are required for reductions in capital taxes to be fully self-financing. This is done in a model with constant returns to scale in broad capital. Such a framework exhibits growth; the scope for self-financing tax cuts is therefore different than in the neoclassical growth model, most recently studied by Mankiw and Weinzierl (2006). Compared to previous literature, I make a methodological contribution in the definition of "Laffer effects" and clarify the role of compositional and dynamic effects in making tax cuts self-financing. I also provide simple analytical expressions for what tax rates are required for tax cuts to be fully self-financing. The results show that large distortions are required to get Laffer effects. Introducing a labor/leisure choice into the model opens up a new avenue for such effects, however.

Keywords: Human capital; compositional effects from taxation; dynamic effects from taxation; Laffer effect; dynamic scoring (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: E62 H30 O41 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 34 pages
Date: 2007-02-23, Revised 2007-04-21
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-dge, nep-mac, nep-pbe and nep-pub
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hhs:sunrpe:2007_0002

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