We study the link between tax progressivity and top income shares. Using variation from large-scale Western tax reforms … top decile were almost unaffected by the reforms. Cuts in top marginal tax rates account for most of this outcome whereas … aggregate GDP per capita, registered patents and tax revenues were unaffected by the reforms. By contrast, tax avoidance …

We compile data spanning the period 1900-2014 and up to 30 countries to study long-run patterns in the tax elasticity … of top incomes. Our results show that top tax elasticities vary tremendously over time; they were medium-to-low before … strong income gradient in tax response within the top, underlining the importance to study even small top groups separately …