The proposition that increases in tax rates discourage market- sector production and may therefore, beyond a certain level, be counterproductive in raising tax revenue is an old issue in the eco- nomic literature. Its recent revival has generated considerable con- troversy and interest among...

In order for a society to use its resources efficiently, property rights must be well defined, enforced, and transferable. By now, this basic conclusion of the modern property rights literature needs little defense. Examples abound of the resource waste that occurs when actors do not bear the...

The history of taxation from the earliest ages has been the history of the attempts of one class to make other classes pay the expenses, or an undue share of the expenses, of the Govern- ment. Aristocrats have always been trying to shift the taxes on to the people, and the people on to the...

This paper examines the Granger causality between total expenditures, own source revenues, grants received from the State and long-term loans for 12 subgroups of Finnish municipalities. Two panel data sets that cover the years 1985-1992 and 1993-1999 are used in order to compare the effect of...

Ihe essence of taxation, seen from the point of view of the tax- payer, is the forcible confiscation of resources. This includes, but is not restricted to, the flow of tax dollars. The analysis presented here explores this fundamental concept of taxation and its relation- ship to the operation...

The United States has become to a considerable extent a redistrib- utive society. The taxing power of the state continues to be used to transfer massive amounts of purchasing power from those who earn their keep to those relatively few who are truly in need and to those relatively many who are...

By 1820, as Sydney Smith argued, the English believed that they were a heavily taxed people. There had been a large increase in tax- ation during the wars with France, and amassive increase in public debt, and the subject of taxation was regularly debated in Parlia- ment and vigorously disputed...

The protections afforded each American from arbitrary govern- ment action are nowhere more attenuated than in the case of en- forcement of the tax laws. Of all federal government agencies, the Internal Revenue Service IIRS) is permitted the greatest latitude in its relations with citizens, to...

In this paper we present a logical extension of the Laffer model that casts doubt on the above criticisms of supply-side economics. In particular, we show that (1) because of “dual taxations,†Reagan’s tax rate cuts will unambiguously lead to immediate (short-term) increases in...

Professor Laffer’s paper’ leads me to ask four questions, which I shall address in turn: 1, Is the Laffer curve an accurate depiction of economic reality? 2. Are we in a prohibitive region of the Laffer curve, that is, a region in which a tax rate cut would increase tax revenues?...