TAX-RATE UNCERTAINTY, FACTOR SUPPLIES, AND WELFARE

Uncertainty about prospective changes in tax rates may increase factor supplies, and hence the tax base, permitting a reduction in tax rates that could result in a net increase in welfare. Under empirically relevant assumptions about attitudes towards risk we find that when an individual exclusively saves or works, the tax base rises in response to greater tax-rate uncertainty, so that welfare could indeed increase. However, when an individual both saves and works, the supply of the randomly taxed factor declines with increased uncertainty, implying that tax revenue and welfare decrease when the nonrandom tax rate is sufficiently low.     

AN ANALYSIS OF THE LAFFER CURVE

The Laffer curve shows the relationship between tax revenue and the personal income tax rate, with tax revenue being a presumably concave function of the tax rate and equal to zero at tax rates of zero percent and 100 percent. If the personal income tax rate is reduced, then tax revenue will decrease (increase) if the economy is on the positively (negatively) sloped section of the Laffer curve. This paper derives a sufficient condition for the economy to be on the positively sloped section of the Laffer curve. In light of the current knowledge of the elasticities of supply of labor and supply of saving, it is difficult to escape the conclusion that a decrease in U.S. personal income tax rates will decrease tax revenue.     

THE CULTURE OF CORRUPTION,TAX EVASION,AND ECONOMIC GROWTH

This study uses a dynamic general equilibrium model to quantify the effects of corruption and tax evasion on fiscal policy and economic growth. The model is calibrated to match estimates of tax evasion in developing countries. The calibrated model is able to generate reasonable predictions for net tax rates, the corruption associated with public investment projects, and the negative correlation between corruption and tax revenue. The presence of corruption and evasion is shown to have significant, but not large, negative effects on economic growth. The relatively moderate effects help explain the absence of a robust negative correlation between growth and corruption in cross‐country data. The model also implies that cracking down on tax evasion before addressing corruption can be a bad idea and that higher wages for public officials can improve welfare. (JEL H3, O4)     

A measuring instrument to evaluate e-service quality in a revenue authority setting

Tax revenue forms the backbone of any economy. The quality of the e-services provided by a revenue authority is therefore crucial, as e-service quality directly influences the burden of complying with tax obligations, and hence affects the tax compliance climate in a country. The aim of the study is the development of a measuring instrument that encapsulates the ‘lens of a tax practitioner’ in an e-service revenue authority setting. In order to develop a conceptual framework, an in-depth, qualitative approach was used to identify a comprehensive range of service attributes and dimensions that potentially drive e-service quality in the revenue authority setting. This framework is then compared with other relevant service quality models to derive at a proposed e-service quality-measuring instrument. Findings from this study may advance the understanding and the management of the e-service quality of the e-services in a revenue authority setting.     

Revenue Mobilisation in Sub‐Saharan Africa: Challenges from Globalisation I – Trade Reform

This is the first of two articles evaluating the nature and extent of, and possible responses to, two of the central challenges that globalisation poses for revenue mobilisation in sub‐Saharan Africa: trade liberalisation, and corporate tax competition. Both articles use a new dataset with the features needed to address these issues meaningfully: a disentangling of tariff from commodity tax revenue, and a distinction between resource‐related and other revenues. This first article describes that dataset, and provides a broad picture of revenue developments in the region between 1980 and 2005. Countries’ experiences have varied, but the overall picture is of non‐resource revenues having been essentially stagnant. Within this, however, and with exceptions, reductions in trade tax revenue have been largely offset by increased revenue from domestic sources.     

Marginal revenue and labor strife in major league baseball

An improved model of baseball player performance and revenue generation shows that, overall, major league players are paid more than the marginal revenue they generate from spectators at the ballpark. Broadcast revenue is shown to be a factor in player salaries, although this revenue is not sensitive to individual player output. Under the current bargaining procedure, collective action in baseball is therefore viewed as the only way to entice owners to pay players for the broadcast revenue they generate.     

Casino Taxation in Macao: An Economic Perspective

Macao’s gaming industry has experienced dramatic growth for 8 years, yet with certain social costs due to compulsive gambling. The government has come under pressure for tax cuts even though its gaming receipts are falling relatively to the casino retained revenue. The request for tax relief is triggered by a recent decline in net profit despite fast growing gross gaming revenue under favorable market conditions. This is very likely caused by a substantial hike in casino operating costs due to increased competition and might also signal the presence of the principal-agent problem. Given the regressivity of gaming tax with respect to net profit, it is no surprise that casinos with lower profitability are more prone to seek tax cuts. The source of Macao gaming profit hinges on three distinct factors: rising demand from China, monopoly location for casinos, and market structure of oligopoly. These factors provide economic justifications for the current tax regime of Macao with a strong ability to pass tax burdens on to massive visitors. The government relies on casino tax revenue to deal with gambling related problems and promote local diversified development. Pushing for tax variability may create policy instability, business uncertainty, and unpredictable prosperity in the long term.     

Targeting occupations with varying reputations to increase tax revenue

If the government's goal is to raise tax revenue in a cost-effective manner, which (if any) occupation categories could be targeted with a higher probability of an audit to yield increased revenue? Looking beyond mere opportunity to evade (e.g., self-employment) and starting from the premise that taxpayers in certain occupations evade more than others, the issue is whether these taxpayers respond to a change in the audit rate. Theory suggests that compliance increases in response to higher audit rates; the occupations with the higher evaders could therefore be targeted. This theory is tested by drawing a connection between occupation, reputation, and tax compliance. We assume that taxpayers in occupations with high need for reputation respond to a lower extent to increased tax audits than taxpayers whose achievement does not depend on reputation. The results support the effectiveness of raising tax revenue by targeting specific occupations, non-managers, with a higher probability of an audit.     

Tax reform and endogenous gender bargaining power

The conventional studies with unitary representation of the household have been seeking for the condition in which tax systems achieve improvements of both fertility and female labor supply. Such analyses may not be enough to capture the important aspects of family behaviors since their common-preference assumption is frequently inconsistent with observed economies. By making use of a family bargaining framework, we argue that the heterogeneity in parental preferences among household members influences the result of existing studies on tax systems. Our results show that when women prefer larger family size than men, the tax reform towards individual taxation raises the fertility rate even more. In this case, female labor supply can be still increased in spite of enhanced fertility due to bargaining allocation.     

TAX EVASION AND THE MARGINAL COST OF PUBLIC FUNDS

Tax evasion and deadweight loss have similar implications for the rules of public finance. The optimal mix of taxes can be derived from the minimization of the sum of aggregate deadweight loss and aggregate cost of tax evasion. Similarly, the marginal cost of public funds includes allowances for marginal deadweight loss and marginal cost of tax evasion per dollar of public revenue acquired.     

ON THE DESIRABILITY OF TAX COORDINATION WHEN COUNTRIES COMPETE IN TAXES AND INFRASTRUCTURE

This article contains two distinct messages. First, when jurisdictions compete in two independent strategic variables, the decision to coordinate on one variable (a tax rate) induces a carry‐over effect on the unconstrained instrument (infrastructure expenditures). Consequently, classical results of the tax coordination literature may be qualified. A second message is that the relative flexibility of the strategic instruments, which may depend on the time horizon of the decision making, does matter. In particular, tax coordination is more likely to be detrimental (in terms of revenue and/or welfare) when countries can compete simultaneously in taxes and infrastructure, rather than sequentially. The reason is that simultaneity eliminates strategic effects between tax and nontax instruments. (JEL H21, H87, H73, F21, C72)     

Freedom of association and collective bargaining in the platform economy: A human rights-based approach and an ever-increasing mobilization of workers

This paper examines the exercise of the rights to freedom of association and collective bargaining by platform workers. It focuses on several significant developments involving the collective organization of platform workers worldwide, and considers the rights to freedom of association and collective bargaining as human rights. It contends that the shifting context of work has led to changes in modern workplaces, which, in turn, have generated a novel interest in the adoption of a human rights-based approach towards labour protection. This approach considers that all workers are entitled to rights, such as the right to collective bargaining, which derive from international human rights instruments.     

美国土地财政收入发展演化规律对上海的启示

美国土地财政收入发展演化从建国至今可以分为四个阶段：土地财政收入从中央向地方转移、从土地资产性收益向土地税收收益转移、土地财政收入占总财政收入比例先递减再到基本稳定、土地财政税收收入以财产税为主。该演化规律对上海的启示是：土地的资产性收益是历史的必然产物,应该客观看待土地财政这一现象,但要注意其又是阶段性的;上海市试点房产税是必然的选择并恰逢其时;上海市土地财政应该积极探索“两条腿走路”;将土地财政逐步向地方政府转移,使之成为地方政府财政收入的主要来源;简化与土地有关的税种并且加大对不动产保有环节征税。     

“营改增”政策试点的市场初步评估

会计市场咨询表明,＂营改增＂政策是一个相当积极的信号,对于上海行业细分和服务外包的发展、尤其是总部经济的发展有重大的推动作用。但从政策实施的实际效果看：首先受益的是制造业服务业分离企业,部分服务企业实际税负尚未降低;部分中资企业对于政策的了解较为局限,不懂得如何从＂营改增＂中获益;没有完整会计账册的小微企业无法享受增值税抵扣带来的税负减轻,反而由此在同业竞争中与大中企业相比丧失了部分议价竞争能力。针对上述问题,应采取相应的对策措施逐步加以解决。     

Foreign aid and domestic taxation: multiple sources,one conclusion

There are influential studies that argue that foreign aid displaces domestic tax revenue when it is given in the form of grants. These claims are based on data that are deeply problematic: several different sources are amalgamated into one dataset, with no apparent checks on compatibility. In this article, a variety of econometric strategies are used to overcome these issues of data quality. The resulting weight of evidence points to a modest but positive effect on the part of foreign aid generally on domestic tax revenue. Fears over a negative effect for aid grants appear unwarranted, and are accounted for by the inappropriate use of data or endogeneity issues.     

SPORTS‐LED TOURISM,SPATIAL DISPLACEMENT,AND HOTEL DEMAND

We analyze the relationship between professional sports events and concerts held in LA's Staples Center and nearby hotel performance. Government‐led economic redevelopment projects often envision sports facilities as tourist magnets. Little evidence exists supporting links between sporting events and hotel demand. An empirical analysis exploiting exogenous daily variation in the timing of games and concerts from 2002 to 2017 shows a small positive impact on room revenue at hotels within one mile and larger room revenue decrease at hotels located one to 4 miles away. The overall impact on hotel room revenue and rooms rented was not positive. Nearby hotel room rates increased during NBA and NHL work stoppages. The city granted four new hotels built very near the arena exemptions from occupancy taxes for 20–25 years; these exemptions reduced hotel tax revenues by a minimum of $4.5 million annually and may not have been needed to spur new hotel development. (JEL H26, H71, Z28)     

UNION POWER,COLLECTIVE BARGAINING,AND OPTIMAL MONETARY POLICY

We study Ramsey policies and optimal monetary policy rules in a dynamic New Keynesian model with unionized labor markets. Collective wage bargaining and unions' monopoly power amplify inefficient employment fluctuations. The optimal monetary policy must trade off between stabilizing inflation and reducing inefficient unemployment fluctuations induced by unions' monopoly power. In this context the monetary authority uses inflation as a tax on union rents and as a mean for indirect redistribution. Results are robust to the introduction of imperfect insurance on income shocks. The optimal monetary policy rule targets unemployment alongside inflation. (JEL E0, E4, E5, E6)     

服务经济发展对税收制度的要求

制度环境是发展服务经济的重要条件和保障,作为制度环境的重要组成部分,税收体制和政策环境在服务经济发展中发挥着重要作用。通过对我国服务行业税收敏感度的实证分析,以及对发达经济体促进服务经济发展税收政策的国际比较与借鉴,指出当前我国税收体制与政策存在的主要问题,提出我国促进服务经济发展的税收体制与政策的改革方向。     

UNDERPRICING IN PUBLIC LOTTERIES: A CRITIQUE OF USER-PAY AND ALL-PAY TARIFFS

A body of literature spanning from medical ethics to public economics has amassed regarding the rationing of underpriced public resources. This study investigates the effects of price on entry, individual and aggregate expected consumer surplus, and tax revenues in user-pay and all-pay (AP) lotteries. Comparative statics indicate that expected surplus may increase (decrease) as price increases (decreases) if entry is sufficiently responsive though entry in AP lotteries is inelastic at all prices. Further, the lotteries are shown to be outcome equivalent under revenue equivalency. Selected results are evaluated numerically with simulations performed across a broad class of distributions describing individual private values. ( JEL D45, D61, H42)     

Optimal income taxation with Kalai wage bargaining and endogenous participation

This paper characterizes the optimal redistributive tax schedule in a search–matching framework where (voluntary) nonparticipation and (involuntary) unemployment are endogenous and wages are determined by proportional bargaining à la Kalai. The optimal employment tax rate is given by an inverse elasticity rule. This rule depends on the global response of the employment rate, which depends not only on the participation (labor supply) responses, but also on the vacancy posting (labor demand) responses and on the product of these two responses. For plausible values of the parameters, our matching environment induces much lower employment tax rates than the usual competitive model with endogenous participation only. However, optimal employment tax rates are larger (in absolute value) when a given level of the global elasticity of employment is more due to search frictions and less due to participation responses.