In an article in the American Economic Review, Jonathan R. Kesselman, Samuel H. Williamson and Ernst R. Berndt presented a Table showing the effect of substituting a marginal employment tax credit (METC)for the investment tax credit (ITC) over the 1962 to 1971 period. Their METC was defined in...

This article analyzes the distributional impact of the Canadian Goods and Services Tax, which was implemented in 1989, using the Social Policy Simulation and Database, a sophisticated micro-simulation tool developoed by Statistics Canada.

This paper discusses the Canadian experience in the early 1980s with tax incentives for R&D.It presents some issues concerning the efficiency and cost effectiveness of the various government tax incentives in stimulating R&D.

In May 1985, Canada's Minister of Finance and the President of the United States each put forward a proposal for reforming his country's corporate income tax system. Both proposals called for a broadening of the tax base and the elimination of investment tax credits. The U. S. proposal also...

Both Canada and the United States have recently undertaken comprehensive reforms of their tax systems. In the case of the corporate tax, the main thrust of the reforms has been to lower tax rates,broaden the tax base, and curtail or eliminate incentives such as investment tax credits. This...

Some economists have attacked the two-percentage point cut in the GST to 5 per cent proposed by the Conservatives in the January 2006 Canadian federal election. The main reason for this is that many economists believe that, if money was available for tax cuts, it would make more sense to use it...

This paper argues that the two-percentage point cut in the GST to 5 per cent proposed by the Conservatives in the January 2006 Canadian federal election and implemented in the 2007 budget was not “stupid” as suggested by many economists. To the contrary, it fortuitously turned out to provide...

This paper reviews the issues raised by inflation and the taxation of business and investment income under an income tax. Some evidence on the tax-induced distortions caused by inflation are presented. This includes estimates of the marginal real tax rates on new investment and the user cost of...

This article presents my response to methodological questions about the incidence and impact of the Canadian Goods and Services Tax raised by W. Irwin Gillespie.