The Welfare Effects of the Reagan Deficits: A Portfolio Choice Approach

Michael Ben-Gad

Economic Inquiry, 2004, vol. 42, issue 3, 441-454

Abstract: I analyze the incidence of U.S. fiscal policy using a two-period, general equilibrium portfolio choice model with imperfect capital markets. Using data from the 1983--89 Panel Survey of Consumer Finances, I divide the population into three groups according to their 1982 portfolio choices and calculate average tax rates for each class of asset holders. Compared to the counterfactual of constant tax rates, the high deficits of the 1980 s harmed the welfare of two large minorities concentrated in both the higher- and lower-income groups, but benefited the majority whose income fell largely in the middle of the income distribution. (JEL H22, H62, G11) Copyright 2004, Oxford University Press.

JEL-codes: G11 H22 H62 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2004
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1093/ei/cbh072 (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:oup:ecinqu:v:42:y:2004:i:3:p:441-454

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://academic.oup.com/journals

Access Statistics for this article

Economic Inquiry is currently edited by Preston McAfee

More articles in Economic Inquiry from Western Economic Association International Oxford University Press, Great Clarendon Street, Oxford OX2 6DP, UK. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Oxford University Press ().