IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/ebl/ecbull/eb-18-00474.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The optimal tax mix with underground labor

Author

Listed:
  • Alejandro Forcades

    (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona)

Abstract

The optimal mix between capital, labor and consumption taxes is derived in a model with underground labor. The Ramsey planner, which is limited by the trade-off between declared and underground labor, sets the tax rate on labor income equal to zero in order to get rid off the issue of tax evasion; so, in contrast to Coleman (2000), subsidizing labor is not optimal. This paper also points out that adding consumption taxation to the model of Correia (1992) makes the Chamley-Judd result of a zero capital tax in the long run hold even when there are restrictions on the taxation of labor; in fact, the optimal tax rate on capital income is always zero. Since consumption taxes are positive and constant for each period, I provide an alternative argument to shift the whole tax burden from income to consumption.

Suggested Citation

  • Alejandro Forcades, 2019. "The optimal tax mix with underground labor," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 39(1), pages 214-222.
    • Handle: RePEc:ebl:ecbull:eb-18-00474
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.accessecon.com/Pubs/EB/2019/Volume39/EB-19-V39-I1-P23.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Laczó, Sarolta & Rossi, Raffaele, 2020. "Time-consistent consumption taxation," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 114(C), pages 194-220.
    2. Correia, Isabel H., 1996. "Should capital income be taxed in the steady state?," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 60(1), pages 147-151, April.
    3. Renzo Orsi & Davide Raggi & Francesco Turino, 2014. "Size, Trend, and Policy Implications of the Underground Economy," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 17(3), pages 417-436, July.
    4. Chamley, Christophe, 1986. "Optimal Taxation of Capital Income in General Equilibrium with Infinite Lives," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 54(3), pages 607-622, May.
    5. Francesco Busato & Bruno Chiarini, 2004. "Market and underground activities in a two-sector dynamic equilibrium model," Economic Theory, Springer;Society for the Advancement of Economic Theory (SAET), vol. 23(4), pages 831-861, May.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. George Economides & Apostolis Philippopoulos & Anastasios Rizos, 2020. "Optimal tax policy under tax evasion," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 27(2), pages 339-362, April.
    2. Stefania Albanesi & Roc Armenter, 2012. "Intertemporal Distortions in the Second Best," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 79(4), pages 1271-1307.
    3. Thomas I. Renström & Luca Spataro, 2021. "Optimal taxation in an endogenous growth model with variable population and public expenditure," Journal of Public Economic Theory, Association for Public Economic Theory, vol. 23(4), pages 639-659, August.
    4. Eggert, Wolfgang & Haufler, Andreas, 1999. "Capital taxation and production efficiency in an open economy," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 62(1), pages 85-90, January.
    5. Jiang Wei, 2019. "Optimal taxation under equilibrium unemployment and economic profits," The B.E. Journal of Macroeconomics, De Gruyter, vol. 19(1), pages 1-21, January.
    6. Garcia Penalosa, Cecilia & Turnovsky, Stephen J., 2005. "Second-best optimal taxation of capital and labor in a developing economy," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 89(5-6), pages 1045-1074, June.
    7. Lockwood, Ben, 2010. "How Should Financial Intermediation Services be Taxed?," CEPR Discussion Papers 8122, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    8. Cerda, Rodrigo A. & Saravia, Diego, 2013. "Optimal taxation with heterogeneous firms and informal sector," Journal of Macroeconomics, Elsevier, vol. 35(C), pages 39-61.
    9. Chiarini, Bruno & Ferrara, Maria & Marzano, Elisabetta, 2022. "Tax evasion and financial accelerator: A corporate sector analysis for the US business cycle," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 108(C).
    10. Martin Barbie & Claudia Hermeling, 2009. "The geometry of optimal taxation: a primal approach," Economic Theory, Springer;Society for the Advancement of Economic Theory (SAET), vol. 39(1), pages 129-155, April.
    11. Emilio Colombo & Davide Furceri & Pietro Pizzuto & Patrizio Tirelli, 2022. "Fiscal Multipliers and Informality," IMF Working Papers 2022/082, International Monetary Fund.
    12. William Peterman, 2016. "The effect of endogenous human capital accumulation on optimal taxation," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 21, pages 46-71, July.
    13. Ceyhun Elgin, 2020. "Shadow Economies Around the World: Evidence from Metropolitan Areas," Eastern Economic Journal, Palgrave Macmillan;Eastern Economic Association, vol. 46(2), pages 301-322, April.
    14. Chahrour, Ryan & Svec, Justin, 2014. "Optimal capital taxation and consumer uncertainty," Journal of Macroeconomics, Elsevier, vol. 41(C), pages 178-198.
    15. Mino, Kazuo, 2001. "Optimal taxation in dynamic economies with increasing returns," Japan and the World Economy, Elsevier, vol. 13(3), pages 235-253, August.
    16. Watanabe, Minoru & Yasuoka, Masaya, 2021. "Different policy effects of Ramsey and overlapping generations models," MPRA Paper 109635, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    17. Koskela Erkki & Thadden Leopold von, 2008. "Optimal Factor Taxation under Wage Bargaining: A Dynamic Perspective," German Economic Review, De Gruyter, vol. 9(2), pages 135-159, May.
    18. Lansing, Kevin J., 1999. "Optimal redistributive capital taxation in a neoclassical growth model," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 73(3), pages 423-453, September.
    19. Colombo, Emilio & Furceri, Davide & Pizzuto, Pietro & Tirelli, Patrizio, 2024. "Public expenditure multipliers and informality," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 164(C).
    20. Chen, Xiaoshan & Leith, Campbell & Ricci, Mattia, 2023. "Evaluating fiscal policy reforms using the fiscal frontier," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 155(C).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    optimal dynamic taxation; underground economy; consumption taxes;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • H2 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue
    • E6 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Macroeconomic Policy, Macroeconomic Aspects of Public Finance, and General Outlook

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ebl:ecbull:eb-18-00474. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: John P. Conley (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.