UNSPECIFIED (1998) Rents and the cost and optimal design of commodity taxes. REVIEW OF ECONOMICS AND STATISTICS, 80 (3). pp. 357-364. ISSN 0034-6535

Full text not available from this repository.

Abstract

This paper numerically investigates the significance of rents for both the welfare costs and the optimal design of commodity taxes using a general-equilibrium model calibrated to 1986 Canadian data. In the data we use, Ricardian rents are concentrated in agriculture and utilities, with market structure rents concentrated in manufacturing. Different types of rents have different implications for the welfare cost of taxes, and hence also for appropriate tax design. Ricardian rents lower the cost of taxes; rents supported by imperfect competition (with no free entry) raise the cost of taxes; rents supported by regulation generate rent-seeking costs, and if taxed improve resource allocation. Model results show a markedly nonuniform optimal tax structure, and a substantial influence of the treatment of rents on the pattern of optimal tax rates by commodity.

Item Type:	Journal Article
Subjects:	H Social Sciences > HC Economic History and Conditions H Social Sciences
Journal or Publication Title:	REVIEW OF ECONOMICS AND STATISTICS
Publisher:	M I T PRESS
ISSN:	0034-6535
Date:	August 1998
Volume:	80
Number:	3
Number of Pages:	8
Page Range:	pp. 357-364
Publication Status:	Published
URI:	http://wrap.warwick.ac.uk/id/eprint/15500

Data sourced from Thomson Reuters' Web of Knowledge

Request changes to a record

Actions (login required)

View Item