1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910702926403321

Autore

Nishiyama Shinichi

Titolo

Consumption Taxes and Economic Efficiency in a Stochastic OLG Economy / / Shinichi Nishiyama, Kent Smetters

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Cambridge, Mass, : National Bureau of Economic Research, 2003

Washington, DC : , : Congressional Budget Office, , [2002]

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource : illustrations (black and white);

Collana

NBER working paper series ; no. w9492

Classificazione

H0

H2

Altri autori (Persone)

SmettersKent

Soggetti

General

Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

February 2003.

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references (pages 41-43).

Sommario/riassunto

Fundamental tax reform is examined in a heterogeneous overlapping-generations (OLG) model in which agents face idiosyncratic earnings shocks and uncertain life spans. Following Auerbach and Kotlikoff (1987), a Lump-Sum Redistribution Authority is used to rigorously examine efficiency gains over the transition path. A progressive income tax is replaced with a flat consumption tax (for example, a value-added tax or a national retail sales tax). If shocks are insurable (that is, no risk), this reform improves (interim) efficiency, a result consistent with the previous literature. But if, more realistically, shocks are uninsurable, this reform reduces efficiency, even though national wealth and output increase over the entire transition path. This efficiency loss, in large part, stems from reduced intragenerational risk sharing that was previously provided by the progressive tax system