In estimating the effects of capital income taxation, different studies measure different effective tax rates. This paper categorizes effective tax rate estimates into six basic types, and discusses the usefulness of each. For marginal effective tax rates, some studies estimate the additional...

Although supply side theory may have been obvious to economists, it instigated a major change in the nature of tax policymaking through marginal rate cuts in both the Economic Recovery Tax Act of 1981 and the Tax Reform Act of 1986. Also, the 1981 bill was the culmination of an era in which...