Pickering, Andrew Christopher orcid.org/0000-0003-1545-2192 and Rajput, Sheraz (2017) Inequality and the composition of taxes. International tax and public finance. ISSN 0927-5940
Abstract
This paper analyzes the political economics of the composition of taxes. Taxes may be levied on income, or on expenditure, with the median voter pivotal in the theoretical framework analyzed. As in Meltzer and Richard (1981) income taxes increase with inequality. Conversely expenditure taxes first increase and then decrease with increasing inequality. The extent to which taxes are levied on income relative to expenditure unambiguously rises with inequality. In contrast to government size evidence, cross-country data exhibit a robust positive correlation between the extent to which taxes are levied on income relative to expenditure, and inequality. Consistent with the theory this relationship holds most significantly in stronger democracies.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2017. This is an author-produced version of the published paper. Uploaded in accordance with the publisher’s self-archiving policy. Further copying may not be permitted; contact the publisher for details |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of York |
Academic Units: | The University of York > Faculty of Social Sciences (York) > Economics and Related Studies (York) |
Depositing User: | Pure (York) |
Date Deposited: | 01 Sep 2017 09:00 |
Last Modified: | 17 Feb 2025 00:08 |
Published Version: | https://doi.org/10.1007/s10797-017-9476-x |
Status: | Published online |
Refereed: | Yes |
Identification Number: | 10.1007/s10797-017-9476-x |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:120747 |