IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/dyncon/v37y2013i5p951-963.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Progressive taxation and macroeconomic (In) stability with productive government spending

Author

Listed:
  • Chen, Shu-Hua
  • Guo, Jang-Ting

Abstract

This paper systematically examines the interrelations between a progressive income tax schedule and macroeconomic (in)stability in an otherwise standard one-sector real business model with productive government spending. We analytically show that the economy exhibits indeterminacy and sunspots if and only if the equilibrium after-tax wage-hours locus is positively sloped and steeper than the household's labor supply curve. Unlike in the framework with useless public expenditures, a less progressive tax policy may operate like an automatic stabilizer that mitigates belief-driven cyclical fluctuations. Moreover, our quantitative analysis shows that this result is able to provide a theoretically plausible explanation for the discernible reduction in US output volatility after the Tax Reform Act of 1986 was implemented.

Suggested Citation

  • Chen, Shu-Hua & Guo, Jang-Ting, 2013. "Progressive taxation and macroeconomic (In) stability with productive government spending," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 37(5), pages 951-963.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:dyncon:v:37:y:2013:i:5:p:951-963
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jedc.2013.01.004
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0165188913000122
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.jedc.2013.01.004?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to look for a different version below or search for a different version of it.

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Jang-Ting Guo & Sharon G. Harrison, 2001. "Tax Policy and Stability in a Model with Sector-Specific Externalities," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 4(1), pages 75-89, January.
    2. Hansen, Gary D., 1985. "Indivisible labor and the business cycle," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 16(3), pages 309-327, November.
    3. Benhabib Jess & Farmer Roger E. A., 1994. "Indeterminacy and Increasing Returns," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 63(1), pages 19-41, June.
    4. Benhabib, Jess & Farmer, Roger E. A., 1996. "Indeterminacy and sector-specific externalities," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 37(3), pages 421-443, June.
    5. Richard Clarida & Jordi Galí & Mark Gertler, 2000. "Monetary Policy Rules and Macroeconomic Stability: Evidence and Some Theory," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 115(1), pages 147-180.
    6. Guo, Jang-Ting & Lansing, Kevin J., 1998. "Indeterminacy and Stabilization Policy," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 82(2), pages 481-490, October.
    7. Aschauer, David Alan, 1989. "Is public expenditure productive?," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 23(2), pages 177-200, March.
    8. James H. Stock & Mark W. Watson, 2003. "Has the Business Cycle Changed and Why?," NBER Chapters, in: NBER Macroeconomics Annual 2002, Volume 17, pages 159-230, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    9. Christiano, Lawrence J. & G. Harrison, Sharon, 1999. "Chaos, sunspots and automatic stabilizers," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 44(1), pages 3-31, August.
    10. Rogerson, Richard, 1988. "Indivisible labor, lotteries and equilibrium," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 21(1), pages 3-16, January.
    11. Barro, Robert J, 1990. "Government Spending in a Simple Model of Endogenous Growth," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 98(5), pages 103-126, October.
    12. Steven P. Cassou & Kevin J. Lansing, 2004. "Growth Effects of Shifting from a Graduated-rate Tax System to a Flat Tax," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 42(2), pages 194-213, April.
    13. Guo, Jang-Ting & Harrison, Sharon G., 2004. "Balanced-budget rules and macroeconomic (in)stability," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 119(2), pages 357-363, December.
    14. Christopher Giles & Paul Johnson, 1994. "Tax reform in the UK and changes in the progressivity of the tax system, 1985-95," Fiscal Studies, Institute for Fiscal Studies, vol. 15(3), pages 64-86, August.
    15. Schmitt-Grohe, Stephanie & Uribe, Martin, 1997. "Balanced-Budget Rules, Distortionary Taxes, and Aggregate Instability," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 105(5), pages 976-1000, October.
    16. Kazuo Mino & Yasuhiro Nakamoto, 2008. "Progressive Taxation, Wealth Distribution, and Macroeconomic Stability," Discussion Papers in Economics and Business 08-22, Osaka University, Graduate School of Economics.
    17. Jess Benhabib & Kazuo Nishimura, 2012. "Indeterminacy and Sunspots with Constant Returns," Springer Books, in: John Stachurski & Alain Venditti & Makoto Yano (ed.), Nonlinear Dynamics in Equilibrium Models, edition 127, chapter 0, pages 311-346, Springer.
    18. James A. Kahn & Margaret M. McConnell & Gabriel Perez-Quiros, 2002. "On the causes of the increased stability of the U.S. economy," Economic Policy Review, Federal Reserve Bank of New York, vol. 8(May), pages 183-202.
    19. Teresa Lloyd‐Braga & Leonor Modesto & Thomas Seegmuller, 2008. "Tax Rate Variability and Public Spending as Sources of Indeterminacy," Journal of Public Economic Theory, Association for Public Economic Theory, vol. 10(3), pages 399-421, June.
    20. Li Wenli & Pierre -Daniel Sarte, 2004. "Progressive Taxation and Long-Run Growth," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 94(5), pages 1705-1716, December.
    21. James H. Stock & Mark W. Watson, 2005. "Understanding Changes In International Business Cycle Dynamics," Journal of the European Economic Association, MIT Press, vol. 3(5), pages 968-1006, September.
    22. Benhabib, Jess & Farmer, Roger E.A., 1999. "Indeterminacy and sunspots in macroeconomics," Handbook of Macroeconomics, in: J. B. Taylor & M. Woodford (ed.), Handbook of Macroeconomics, edition 1, volume 1, chapter 6, pages 387-448, Elsevier.
    23. Daniel Feenberg & Elisabeth Coutts, 1993. "An introduction to the TAXSIM model," Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 12(1), pages 189-194.
    24. Randall W. Eberts, 1986. "Estimating the contribution of urban public infrastructure to regional growth," Working Papers (Old Series) 8610, Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland.
    25. Jang‐Ting Guo & Sharon G. Harrison, 2008. "Useful Government Spending and Macroeconomic (In)stability under Balanced‐Budget Rules," Journal of Public Economic Theory, Association for Public Economic Theory, vol. 10(3), pages 383-397, June.
    26. Woodford, Michael, 1986. "Stationary sunspot equilibria in a finance constrained economy," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 40(1), pages 128-137, October.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Tilemahos Efthimiadis & Panagiotis Tsintzos, 2023. "From Debt to Green Growth: A Policy Proposal," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(4), pages 1-14, February.
    2. Jonathan Heathcote & Kjetil Storesletten & Giovanni L. Violante, 2017. "Optimal Tax Progressivity: An Analytical Framework," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 132(4), pages 1693-1754.
    3. Been-Lon Chen & Mei Hsu & Yu-Shan Hsu, 2018. "Progressive taxation and macroeconomic stability in two-sector models with social constant returns," Journal of Economics, Springer, vol. 125(1), pages 51-68, September.
    4. Yan Zhang, 2021. "Income effects, stabilization policy, and indeterminacy in one-sector models," Annals of Economics and Finance, Society for AEF, vol. 22(1), pages 109-133, May.
    5. Chen, Shu-Hua, 2020. "Inequality-growth nexus under progressive income taxation," Journal of Macroeconomics, Elsevier, vol. 65(C).
    6. Juin‐Jen Chang & Jang‐Ting Guo & Jhy‐Yuan Shieh & Wei‐Neng Wang, 2015. "Sectoral Composition Of Government Spending And Macroeconomic (In)Stability," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 53(1), pages 23-33, January.
    7. Juin‐Jen Chang & Jang‐Ting Guo & Jhy‐Yuan Shieh & Wei‐Neng Wang, 2019. "Sectoral composition of government spending, distortionary income taxation, and macroeconomic (in)stability," International Journal of Economic Theory, The International Society for Economic Theory, vol. 15(1), pages 95-107, March.
    8. Diana Alessandrini, 2021. "Progressive Taxation and Economic Stability," Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 123(2), pages 422-452, April.
    9. Chen, Been-Lon & Hu, Yunfang & Mino, Kazuo, 2020. "Income Taxation Rules and Stability of a Small Open Economy," Journal of Macroeconomics, Elsevier, vol. 65(C).
    10. George Economides & Apostolis Philippopoulos & Stylianos Sakkas, 2021. "Redistributive policies in general equilibrium," JRC Working Papers on Territorial Modelling and Analysis 2021-08, Joint Research Centre.
    11. Francesco Carli & Leonor Modesto, 2022. "Sovereign debt, fiscal policy, and macroeconomic instability," Journal of Public Economic Theory, Association for Public Economic Theory, vol. 24(6), pages 1386-1412, December.
    12. Chen, Shu-Hua & Guo, Jang-Ting, 2014. "Progressive taxation and macroeconomic (in)stability with utility-generating government spending," Journal of Macroeconomics, Elsevier, vol. 42(C), pages 174-183.
    13. Engler, Philipp & Strehl, Wolfgang, 2016. "The macroeconomic effects of progressive taxes and welfare," Discussion Papers 2016/23, Free University Berlin, School of Business & Economics.
    14. Shu-Hua Chen & Jang-Ting Guo, 2019. "Progressive taxation as an automatic destabilizer under endogenous growth," Journal of Economics, Springer, vol. 127(1), pages 47-71, June.
    15. Zhang, Yan, 2020. "Stabilization policy and indeterminacy in a small open economy," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 90(C), pages 159-167.
    16. Keinsley, Andrew, 2016. "Indexing the income tax code, monetary/fiscal interaction, and the great moderation," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 89(C), pages 1-20.
    17. Maxime Menuet & Alexandru Minea & Patrick Villieu, 2019. "Increasing Returns, Balanced-Budget Rules, and Aggregate Fluctuations," Working Papers hal-02153853, HAL.
    18. Carneiro, Fernando Moraes & Turnovsky, Stephen J. & Tourinho, Octavio Augusto Fontes, 2022. "Economic growth and inequality tradeoffs under progressive taxation," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 143(C).
    19. Been-Lon Chen & Yunfang Hu & Kazuo Mino, 2018. "Does Nonlinear Taxation Stabilize Small Open Economies?," KIER Working Papers 997, Kyoto University, Institute of Economic Research.
    20. Jay H. Hong & Byoung Hoon Seok & Hye Mi You, 2019. "Wage Volatility And Changing Patterns Of Labor Supply," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 60(2), pages 595-630, May.
    21. Jang-Ting Guo & Sharon G. Harrison, 2015. "Indeterminacy with Progressive Taxation and Sector-Specific Externalities," Pacific Economic Review, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 20(2), pages 268-281, May.
    22. Albulena Ukimeraj, 2016. "Professional Ethics and Disciplinary System in the KCA," European Journal of Economics and Business Studies Articles, Revistia Research and Publishing, vol. 2, ejes_v2_i.
    23. Maxime Menuet & Alexandru Minea & Patrick Villieu, 2019. "Budget Rules, Distortionnary Taxes, and Aggregate Instability: A reappraisal," Working Papers hal-02153856, HAL.
    24. Shian -Jang Tzeng & Yirui Xu & Jianfu Ding & Yongyou Li & Hongshi Jin, 2021. "The dynamic analysis of maintenance policy in a growing economy with public capital," International Journal of Economic Policy Studies, Springer, vol. 15(1), pages 183-204, February.

    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. Juin‐Jen Chang & Jang‐Ting Guo & Jhy‐Yuan Shieh & Wei‐Neng Wang, 2015. "Sectoral Composition Of Government Spending And Macroeconomic (In)Stability," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 53(1), pages 23-33, January.
    2. Chen, Shu-Hua & Guo, Jang-Ting, 2014. "Progressive taxation and macroeconomic (in)stability with utility-generating government spending," Journal of Macroeconomics, Elsevier, vol. 42(C), pages 174-183.
    3. Jang-Ting Guo & Sharon G. Harrison, 2015. "Indeterminacy with Progressive Taxation and Sector-Specific Externalities," Pacific Economic Review, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 20(2), pages 268-281, May.
    4. Kevin X.D. Huang & Qinglai Meng & Jianpo Xue, 2018. "Balanced‐Budget Rules and Aggregate Instability: The Role of Endogenous Capital Utilization," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 50(8), pages 1669-1709, December.
    5. Lloyd-Braga, Teresa & Modesto, Leonor, 2012. "Can Taxes Stabilize the Economy in the Presence of Consumption Externalities?," IZA Discussion Papers 6876, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    6. Patrick Pintus, 2004. "International Capital Mobility and Aggregate Volatility: the Case of Credit-Rationed Open Economies," Computing in Economics and Finance 2004 193, Society for Computational Economics.
    7. Maxime Menuet & Alexandru Minea & Patrick Villieu, 2019. "Budget Rules, Distortionnary Taxes, and Aggregate Instability: A reappraisal," Working Papers hal-02153856, HAL.
    8. Juin‐Jen Chang & Jang‐Ting Guo & Jhy‐Yuan Shieh & Wei‐Neng Wang, 2019. "Sectoral composition of government spending, distortionary income taxation, and macroeconomic (in)stability," International Journal of Economic Theory, The International Society for Economic Theory, vol. 15(1), pages 95-107, March.
    9. Guo, Jang-Ting & Lansing, Kevin J., 2002. "Fiscal Policy, Increasing Returns, And Endogenous Fluctuations," Macroeconomic Dynamics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 6(5), pages 633-664, November.
    10. Kevin X.D. Huang & Qinglai Meng & Jianpo Xue, 2019. "Capital Income Taxation and Aggregate Instability," Vanderbilt University Department of Economics Working Papers 19-00007, Vanderbilt University Department of Economics.
    11. Mohanad Ismael, 2014. "Progressive income taxes and macroeconomic instability," Montenegrin Journal of Economics, Economic Laboratory for Transition Research (ELIT), vol. 10(2), pages 49-61.
    12. Hyun Park, 2015. "Aggregate Instability and Fiscal Policies: Balanced Budget Rules and Productive Public Spending," Korean Economic Review, Korean Economic Association, vol. 31, pages 25-56.
    13. Been-Lon Chen & Mei Hsu & Yu-Shan Hsu, 2018. "Progressive taxation and macroeconomic stability in two-sector models with social constant returns," Journal of Economics, Springer, vol. 125(1), pages 51-68, September.
    14. Bosi, Stefano & Seegmuller, Thomas, 2010. "On the role of progressive taxation in a Ramsey model with heterogeneous households," Journal of Mathematical Economics, Elsevier, vol. 46(6), pages 977-996, November.
    15. Teresa Lloyd‐Braga & Leonor Modesto & Thomas Seegmuller, 2008. "Tax Rate Variability and Public Spending as Sources of Indeterminacy," Journal of Public Economic Theory, Association for Public Economic Theory, vol. 10(3), pages 399-421, June.
    16. Maxime MENUET & Alexandru MINEA & Patrick VILLIEU, 2019. "The Perils of Fiscal Rules," LEO Working Papers / DR LEO 2702, Orleans Economics Laboratory / Laboratoire d'Economie d'Orleans (LEO), University of Orleans.
    17. Sergey Slobodyan, 2004. "One Sector Models, Indeterminacy, and Productive Public Spending," Computing in Economics and Finance 2004 314, Society for Computational Economics.
    18. Herrendorf, Berthold & Valentinyi, Akos, 2006. "On the stability of the two-sector neoclassical growth model with externalities," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 30(8), pages 1339-1361, August.
    19. Chen, Shu-Hua, 2019. "On economic growth and automatic stabilizers under linearly progressive income taxation," Journal of Macroeconomics, Elsevier, vol. 60(C), pages 378-395.
    20. Chu, Angus C. & Liao, Chih-Hsing & Liu, Xiangbo & Zhang, Mengbo, 2021. "Indeterminacy in a matching model of money with productive government expenditure," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 71(C), pages 497-516.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Progressive income taxation; Equilibrium (in)determinacy; Productive government spending; Business cycles;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • E32 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Prices, Business Fluctuations, and Cycles - - - Business Fluctuations; Cycles
    • E62 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Macroeconomic Policy, Macroeconomic Aspects of Public Finance, and General Outlook - - - Fiscal Policy; Modern Monetary Theory

    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:eee:dyncon:v:37:y:2013:i:5:p:951-963. 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: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/jedc .

    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.