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Adverse selection in credit markets and regressive profit taxation

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  • Scheuer, Florian

Abstract

In many countries, taxes on businesses are less progressive than labor income taxes. This paper provides a justification for this pattern based on adverse selection that entrepreneurs face in credit markets. Individuals choose between becoming entrepreneurs or workers and differ in their skill in both of these occupations. I find that endogenous cross-subsidization in the credit market equilibrium results in excessive (insufficient) entry of low-skilled (high-skilled) agents into entrepreneurship. This gives rise to a corrective role for differential taxation of entrepreneurial profits and labor income. In particular, a profit tax that is regressive relative to taxes on labor income restores the efficient occupational choice.

Suggested Citation

  • Scheuer, Florian, 2013. "Adverse selection in credit markets and regressive profit taxation," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 148(4), pages 1333-1360.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jetheo:v:148:y:2013:i:4:p:1333-1360
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jet.2013.04.010
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    Blog mentions

    As found by EconAcademics.org, the blog aggregator for Economics research:
    1. Why should entrepreneurial income be taxed less progressively than labor income?
      by Economic Logician in Economic Logic on 2012-10-15 19:06:00

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    Cited by:

    1. Laurence Jacquet & Etienne Lehmann, 2015. "Optimal Income Taxation when Skills and Behavioral Elasticities are Heterogeneous," CESifo Working Paper Series 5265, CESifo.
    2. Casey Rothschild & Florian Scheuer, 2016. "Optimal Taxation with Rent-Seeking," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 83(3), pages 1225-1262.
    3. Florian Scheuer & Joel Slemrod, 2020. "Taxation and the Superrich," Annual Review of Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 12(1), pages 189-211, August.
    4. Laurence Jacquet & Etienne Lehmann, 2023. "Optimal tax problems with multidimensional heterogeneity: a mechanism design approach," Social Choice and Welfare, Springer;The Society for Social Choice and Welfare, vol. 60(1), pages 135-164, January.
    5. Laurence Jacquet & Etienne Lehmann, 2021. "Optimal Income Taxation with Composition Effects," Journal of the European Economic Association, European Economic Association, vol. 19(2), pages 1299-1341.
    6. Koufopoulos, Kostos & Kozhan, Roman & Trigilia, Giulio, 2014. "Optimal Security Design under Asymmetric Information and Profit Manipulation," The Warwick Economics Research Paper Series (TWERPS) 1050, University of Warwick, Department of Economics.
    7. Paweł Doligalski & Abdoulaye Ndiaye & Nicolas Werquin, 2023. "Redistribution with Performance Pay," Journal of Political Economy Macroeconomics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 1(2), pages 371-402.
    8. Anastasios Dosis, 2016. "Investment, Adverse Selection and Optimal Redistributive Taxation," Working Papers hal-01285163, HAL.
    9. Florian Scheuer, 2014. "Entrepreneurial Taxation with Endogenous Entry," American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, American Economic Association, vol. 6(2), pages 126-163, May.
    10. Zhigang Feng & Anne Villamil, 2022. "Funding employer-based insurance: regressive taxation and premium exclusions," Economic Theory, Springer;Society for the Advancement of Economic Theory (SAET), vol. 73(2), pages 509-540, April.
    11. Dosis, Anastasios, 2019. "The effects of redistributive taxation in credit markets with adverse selection," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 184(C).
    12. Dosis, Anastasios, 2016. "Investment, Adverse Selection and Optimal Redistributive Taxation," ESSEC Working Papers WP1605, ESSEC Research Center, ESSEC Business School.
    13. Anastasios Dosis, 2019. "Optimal Redistributive Taxation in Credit Markets with Adverse Selection," Working Papers hal-02130458, HAL.
    14. Lawson, Nicholas, 2019. "Taxing the job creators: Efficient taxation with bargaining in hierarchical firms," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 56(C), pages 1-25.
    15. G. Coco & G. Pignataro, 2012. "Wealth inequality, unequal opportunities and inefficient credit market," Working Papers wp851, Dipartimento Scienze Economiche, Universita' di Bologna.
    16. Diego d’Andria, 2019. "Tax policy and entrepreneurial entry with information asymmetry and learning," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 26(5), pages 1211-1229, October.
    17. Robin Boadway & Motohiro Sato & Jean-François Tremblay, 2021. "Efficiency and the taxation of bank profits," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 28(1), pages 191-211, February.
    18. Hernández, Juan & Wills, Daniel, 2024. "Fighting for the Best, Losing with the Rest: The Perils of Competition in Entrepreneurial Finance," IDB Publications (Working Papers) 13362, Inter-American Development Bank.
    19. Laurence JACQUET & Etienne LEHMANN, 2014. "Optimal Nonlinear Income Taxation with Multidimensional Types: The Case with Heterogeneous Behavioral Responses," THEMA Working Papers 2014-01, THEMA (THéorie Economique, Modélisation et Applications), Université de Cergy-Pontoise.
    20. Louis Kaplow, 2022. "Optimal Income Taxation," NBER Working Papers 30199, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    21. Rishabh, Kumar, 2021. "Bank as a Venture Capitalist," Working papers 2021/09, Faculty of Business and Economics - University of Basel.
    22. Koufopoulos, Kostas & Kozhan, Roman & Trigilia, Giulio, 2014. "Optimal Security Design under Asymmetric Information and Profit Manipulation," Economic Research Papers 270233, University of Warwick - Department of Economics.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Multidimensional screening; Credit markets; Entrepreneurial taxation; Occupational choice;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D5 - Microeconomics - - General Equilibrium and Disequilibrium
    • D8 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty
    • G1 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets
    • H2 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue
    • J6 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, Vacancies, and Immigrant Workers

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