Tax Policy and Corporate Saving

macroeconomics,corporate saving, tax policy

Is the Gasoline Tax Regressive?

Claims of the regressivity of gasoline taxes typically rely on annual surveys of consumer income and expenditures which show that gasoline expenditures are a larger fraction of income for very low income households than for middle or high-income households. This paper argues that annual expenditure provides a more reliable indicator of household well-being than annual income. It uses data from the Consumer Expenditure Survey to reassess the claim that gasoline taxes are regressive by computing the share of total expenditures which high-spending and low-spending households devote to retail gasoline purchases. This alternative approach shows that low?expenditure households devote a smaller share of their budget to gasoline than do their counterparts in the middle of the expenditure distribution. Although households in the top five percent of the total spending distribution spend less on gasoline than those who are less well-off, the share of expenditure devoted to gasoline is much more stable across the population than the ratio of gasoline outlays to current income. The gasoline tax thus appears far less regressive than conventional analyses suggest.

Impact of population aging on financial markets in developed countries

The impact of population aging on asset prices is a topic that has attracted tremendous interest, both in academic research and even more so in the popular press. It is not too hard to understand why. Poterba addresses three issues related to the links between demography and financial markets. First, he outlines a very simple model in which there can be an important linkage between the age structure of the population and the level of financial asset prices. Then he describes the empirical evidence that is available on this relationship, focusing primarily on the U.S. experience in the 20th century. Finally, he explores how the changing age structure of the population will affect the demand for different types of financial products.Population ; Financial markets ; Demography