Journal Article
Trends and gradients in top tax elasticities: cross-country evidence, 1900-2014
Authors
Publication date
Jun 2019
Summary
We construct a cross-country dataset spanning 1900–2014 to estimate the tax elasticity of top incomes. Our results show that top tax elasticities vary tremendously over time; they were medium to low before 1950, dropped to almost zero during the postwar era and increased to unprecedented levels since 1980.We document a marked income gradient of increasing tax responsiveness at the top. Tax avoidance, especially income shifting between wage and capital income, appears to be one important driver of these patterns. Wars, financial crises, and country-specific effects and trends also have a bearing on top elasticities.
Published in
International Tax and Public Finance
Volume and page numbers
26 , 457 -485
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1007/s10797-018-9524-1
ISSN
16
Subjects
Economics, Income Dynamics, and Taxation
Links
University of Essex, Albert Sloman Library Periodicals *restricted to University of Essex registered users* - http://serlib0.essex.ac.uk/record=b1617625~S5
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