Do We Need Ramsey Taxation? Our Existing Taxes Are Largely Corrective

Eric Yan, Qu Feng and Yew-Kwang Ng
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Eric Yan: Monash University, Australia
Qu Feng: Economics Division, School of Social Sciences, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
Yew-Kwang Ng: Special Chair Professor, School of Economics, Fudan University; Emeritus Professor, Monash University.

No 2003, Economic Growth Centre Working Paper Series from Nanyang Technological University, School of Social Sciences, Economic Growth Centre

Abstract: Due to the importance of environmental disruption (both in production and consumption), relative competition between individuals (including conspicuous consumption and keeping up with the Joneses), the diamond effect, excessive consumerism or the materialist bias, most taxes in most countries, though mainly designed for revenue collection, are largely corrective than distortive. There is thus no need for Ramsey taxation. In this paper,a theoretical model is built to make a comparison between the social optimality attained by an income tax and the individual optimality attaine dwithout an income tax. Relative competition and environmental disruption reinforce each other in causing excessive work and excessive pollution. An income tax is shown to reduce these double departures (from social optimality) of both leisure and environmental quality. The empirical test conducted on the data from the World Bank and the International Labor Organization conforms to this theoretical finding. More concretely, when the labor tax increases by 1 standard deviation from the average level, the average working time maybe reduced by1.125%. And when there is a higher profit tax than the average level by 1 standard deviation, about 6% of the cross-country average level of carbon damage in the sample may be reduced.

Keywords: Corrective taxation; environmental disruption; optimal taxation; Ramsey taxation; relative consumption. (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: E24 I2 O3 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 36 pages
Date: 2020-03
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