This paper offers a possible explanation for the existence of continual government budget deficits such as experienced in a number of industrialized countries in recent years. Based on the assumption that higher tax rates cause more intensive tax-aversion behavior (tax avoidance and tax...

Taking account of the costs of tax evasion and avoidance activity together with the government's costs of tax enforcement it is shown that the optimal point on a stylized Laffer curve is located on the positively sloped region, not at the maximum point of the, curve. The analysis eschews the...