Competitive Nonlinear Taxation and Constitutional Choice

In an economy where agents are characterized by different productivities (vertical types) and different abilities to move (horizontal types), we compare a unified nonlinear optimal taxation schedule with the equilibrium taxation schedule that would be chosen by two competing tax authorities if the same economy were divided into two States. The overall level of progressivity and redistribution is unambiguously lower under competitive taxation than under unified taxation; the “rich” are always in favor of competing authorities and local governments, whereas the “poor” are always in favor of unified taxation. The constitutional choice between fiscal regimes depends on the preferences of the middle class, which in turn depend on the initial conditions in terms of the distribution of abilities (incomes), the relative power of the various classes, and mobility costs. In particular, as mobility increases, it becomes increasingly likely that a reform in the direction of unification of fiscal policies in a federation will receive majority support, while a decreased average wealth can have the opposite effect.Competitive nonlinear taxation, Mobility, Integration, Inequality, Type preferencesover institutions.

Labor Mobility and Income Tax Competition

This paper provides a model of nonlinear income taxation in a context of international mobility. We consider two identical countries, in which each government chooses non-cooperatively redistributive taxes. It is shown that when skilled workers can move at low cost, the income taxation does not involve distortions. When the cost to move becomes high for skilled workers, taxation policy is less redistributive but qualitatively similar to the taxation policy in autarky. Moreover, the mobility of the unskilled workers does not affect the income taxation when both countries have Rawlsian objectives.Fiscal Competition, Labor Mobility, Optimal Taxation, Mechanism Design

Optimal Income Taxation with Tax Competition

We introduce tax competition for mobile labor into an optimal-taxation model with two skill levels. We analyze a symmetric subgame-perfect Nash equilibrium of the game between two governments and two taxpayer populations. Tax competition reduces the distortion from the informational asymmetry and increases employment of the less productive individuals. When countries are heterogeneous, this effect is more pronounced in the smaller country.optimal income tax, migration, unemployment, tax competition, Leviathan government

Labor Migration and the Case for Flat Tax

In this paper we employ a tax-competition model to demonstrate that in the presence of migration the re-distributive advantage of a non-linear income tax system over a linear (flat) one is significantly mitigated relative to the autarky (no-migration) equilibrium. When migration threats are sufficiently strong, a coordinated shift from a non-linear (prima-facie superior) system to a flat (inferior) regime is not too welfare-costly, even when the extent of re-distribution is significant. Therefore, such a shift may be warranted on administrative grounds. We also show, as expected, that migration reduces the extent of redistribution.flat tax, re-distribution, migration, tax-competition

Fiscal Competition in Space and Time: An Endogenous-Growth Approach

Is tax competition good for economic growth? The paper addresses this question by means of a simple model of endogenous growth. There are many small jurisdictions in a large federation and individual governments benevolently maximise the welfare of immobile residents. Investment is costly: Quadratic installation and de-installation costs limit the mobility of capital. The paper looks at optimal taxation and long-run growth. In particular, the effects of variations in the cost parameter on economic growth and taxation are considered. It is shown that balanced endogenous growth paths do not always exist and effects of changes in installation costs are ambiguous.

How Do Local Governments Decide on Public Policy in Fiscal Federalism? Tax vs. Expenditure Optimization

Previous literature widely assumes that taxes are optimized in local public finance while expenditures adjust residually. This paper endogenizes the choice of the optimization variable. In particular, it analyzes how federal policy toward local governments influences the way local governments decide on public policy. Unlike the presumption, the paper shows that local governments may choose to optimize over expenditures. The result most notably prevails when federal policy subsidizes local fiscal effort. The results offer a new perspective of the efficiency implications of federal policy toward local governments and, thereby, enable a more precise characterization of local government behaviour in fiscal federalism.tax vs. expenditure optimization, federalism, endogenous commitment, fiscal incentives, policy interaction

Outsourcing, Public Input Provision and Policy Cooperation

This paper concerns public input provision as an instrument for redistribution under international outsourcing by using a model-economy comprising two countries, North and South, where firms in the North may outsource part of their low-skilled labor intensive production to the South. We consider two interrelated issues: (i) the incentives for each country to modify the provision of public input goods in response to international outsourcing, and (ii) whether international outsourcing justifies policy cooperation. If the public input good is substitutable for (complementary with) outsourcing in terms of the production function faced by northern firms, then outsourcing contributes to increase (decrease) the public input provision in the North. For the South, the optimal policy response depends on the level of outsourcing. We also show how policy cooperation with respect to public input provision can be designed to increase the overall social welfare.outsourcing, redistribution, public input goods, asymmetric information

Market Structure and the Taxation of International Trade

The paper compares non-cooperative commodity taxation under the destination and origin principles under a variety of different assumptions about market structure. We consider a model of international duopoly with either quantity or price competition of firms and either segmented or integrated markets, and a monopolistic competition model with mobile firms. In each setting the international spillovers of tax policy are isolated and evaluated at the Pareto efficient tax rate. The sign of the net spillover, and thus the direction that commodity tax competition will take, depends critically on whether lump-sum taxes are available or commodity taxes must be used to finance the government budget.tax competition, market imperfections, international trade

The Taxation of Financial Capital under Asymmetric Information and the Tax-Competition Paradox

This paper examines information sharing between governments in an optimal taxation framework. We present a taxonomy of alternative systems of international capital income taxation and characterize the choice of tax rates and information exchange. The model reproduces the conclusion of the previous literature that integration of international capital markets may lead to the under-provision of publicly provided goods. However, contrary to the existing literature under-provision occurs because of inefficiently coordinated expectations. We show that there exists a second equilibrium with an efficient level of public good provision and complete and voluntary information exchange between national tax authorities.tax competition, information exchange

Fiscal Policy, Economic Integration and Unemployment

In this paper fiscal policy is examined for an open economy characterised by unemployment due to efficiency wages. We allow for capital and firm mobility in a model where the government chooses the level of wage, source-based capital and profit taxation. The taxing choices of governments are analyzed in scenarios which differ with respect to the constraints imposed on the set of available taxes and on the mobility of firms. As a general result, the welfare loss from labour market imperfections increases when tax bases become internationally mobile, which suggests an increasing relevance of domestic labour-market reforms when tax bases become global.taxation, efficiency wages, unemployment