39 research outputs found

    Dividend and Capital Gains Taxation under Incomplete Markets

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    The capital income tax cuts that were part of the Jobs and Growth Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2003 are expiring this year and the administration has to decide whether to extend them or not. This paper assesses the effects of these tax cuts in a calibrated dynamic general equilibrium framework with uninsurable labor income risk. In particular, it looks at the effects of dividend and capital gains taxes on investment and welfare in a framework where firms are the owners of capital and make investment decisions to maximize their market value. While the effects of capital gains taxes are qualitatively similar to those found when households own the capital, we find that the effects of dividend taxes are different. Surprisingly, a dividend tax cut leads to a reduction in investment. The reason is that it raises the market valuation of the existing capital stock and households require a lower capital stock to maintain the same level of wealth. As a consequence, dividend tax cuts are welfare reducing in the long run, not only because of the traditional reasons of redistribution from the poor to rich, but also because of a fall in aggregate production and consumption. Taking into account the transition mitigates the losses. Still, with our benchmark calibration, a reduction of dividend and capital gains taxes from 31% and 24% to 19% leads to a reduction of more than 0.5% in aggregate welfare in consumption equivalent terms.Incomplete Markets, Tax Reform, Dividend Taxes, Capital Gains Taxes.

    Equity Issuance and Divident Policy under Commitment

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    This paper studies a model of corporate finance in which firms use stock issuance to finance investment. Since the firm recognizes the relationship between future dividends and stock prices, future variables enter in the constraints and optimal policy is in general time inconsistent. We discuss the nature of time inconsistency and show that it arises because managers promise to incorporate value maximization gradually into their objective function. This shows how one could change managers’ incentives in order to enforce the optimal contract under full commitment. We then characterize several cases where time consistency arises and we study different examples where policy is time inconsistent. This allows us to address some outstanding issues in the literature about dividend policy and equity issuance. In particular, our results suggest that growing firms that can credibly commit will pay lower dividends at the beginning and promise higher dividends in the future, consistent with empirical evidence. Our results also suggests that compensation that is tied to stock options creates incentives to inflate prices and pay lower dividends. This is consistent with the empirical evidence of increased stock option compensation and payout through repurchases instead to dividends during the last decades.Stock Issuance; time inconsistency; dividend policy

    Proper Welfare Weights for Social Optimization Problems

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    Social optimization problems are often used in economics to study important issues. In a social optimization problem, the sum of individual weighted utilities is maximized over all feasible allocations that satisfy certain constraints. In this paper, we provide a mechanism that determines the set of proper individual weights to be applied to social optimization problems. To do this, we first define for every set of individual weights and for every social welfare function the contribution of every individual to the total welfare through the individual’s initial endowments. We then provide an axiomatic approach to the notion of the per unit contribution of every good and every individual. We then define a set of individual weights to be proper iff the weighted utilities of every individual from this allocation are proportional to the contribution of the individual to the total welfare as defined by this set of weights. It is shown that every contribution mechanism that satisfies these four axioms is uniquely determined by a non negative measure on the unit interval. The selection of a specific contribution mechanism (or equivalently the selection of a specific nonnegative measure on the unit interval) determines for a given economy and a given set of weights a proper constrained efficient allocation and a proper set of weights. Finally, we provide several numerical examples that illustrate our methodology. When households are not ex ante identical, the examples suggest that using the proper weights can substantially affect the allocations.Welfare weights, Heterogeneous Households

    An Evolutionary Theory of Inflation Inertia

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    We provide a simple theory of inflation inertia in a staggered price setting framework a la Calvo (1983). Contrary to Calvo's formulation, the frequency of price changes is allowed to vary according to an evolutionary criterion. Inertia is the direct result of gradual adjustment in this frequency following a permanent change in the rate of money growth.Inflation inertia, evolutionary game theory, staggered price setting,

    Dividend and capital gains taxation under incomplete markets

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    Motivated by the Jobs and Growth Tax Relief Reconciliation Act (JGTRRA) of 2003, the effects of capital income tax cuts are investigated in an economy with heterogeneous households and a representative, mature firm. Dividend tax cuts, contrary to capital gains tax cuts, lead to a decrease in investment and capital. This is because they increase the market value of existing capital and households require a higher return to hold this additional wealth. In line with empirical evidence, the model predicts substantial increases in dividends and stock prices. Overall, the tax cuts lead to a welfare reduction equivalent to a consumption drop of 0.5%

    An Evolutionary Theory of Inflation Inertia

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    We provide a simple theory of inflation inertia in a staggered price setting frame- work a la Calvo (1983). Contrary to Calvo's formulation, the frequency of price changes is allowed to vary according to an evolutionary criterion. Inertia is the direct result of gradual adjustment in this frequency following a permanent change in the rate of money growth

    An Evolutionary Theory of Inflation Inertia

    Get PDF
    We provide a simple theory of inflation inertia in a staggered price setting frame- work a la Calvo (1983). Contrary to Calvo's formulation, the frequency of price changes is allowed to vary according to an evolutionary criterion. Inertia is the direct result of gradual adjustment in this frequency following a permanent change in the rate of money growth
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