Natural volatility, welfare and taxation

Abstract

Cyclical components are analytically computed in a theoretical model of stochastic endogenous fluctuations and growth. Volatility is shown to depend on the speed of convergence of the cyclical component, the expected length of a cycle and on the attitude of the slump. Taxes affect these channels and can therefore explain cross-country differences and breaks over time in volatility. With exogenous sources of fluctuations, a special case of our model, decentralized factor allocation is efficient. With endogenous fluctuations and growth decentralized factor allocation is inefficient and (time invariant) taxes can (de-) stabilize the economy. No unambiguous link exists between volatility and welfare.Endogenous fluctuations and growth; welfare analysis; taxation; stochastic continuous time model; Poisson uncertainty