IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/pubfin/v15y1987i1p27-44.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Who Benefits from Indexation?

Author

Listed:
  • James Alm
  • Reuben A. Zubrow

Abstract

This article analyzes the distributional effects of indexation of the standard deduction, the personal exemption, and the marginal tax rate brackets in the personal income tax. The analysis focuses upon Colorado, a state that enacted full indexation of its personal income tax in 1978. It is found that full indexation is decidedly pro-poor: The percentage reduction in taxes due to indexation falls as income rises, with the percentage reduction nearly four times as great for the lowest income class as for the highest. The factors giving the largest proportional benefit to the lowest-income taxpayers are indexation of the standard deduction and, to a lesser extent, the rate brackets, although the relative importance of the various indexation factors is shown to vary over time.

Suggested Citation

  • James Alm & Reuben A. Zubrow, 1987. "Who Benefits from Indexation?," Public Finance Review, , vol. 15(1), pages 27-44, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:pubfin:v:15:y:1987:i:1:p:27-44
    DOI: 10.1177/109114218701500102
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/109114218701500102
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/109114218701500102?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
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Suits, Daniel B, 1977. "Measurement of Tax Progressivity," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 67(4), pages 747-752, September.
    2. Aaron, Henry J, 1976. "Inflation and the Income Tax," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 66(2), pages 193-199, 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. Poddar, Satya N. & Genser, Bernd, 1986. "Measurement of effective tax progression," Discussion Papers, Series I 224, University of Konstanz, Department of Economics.
    2. Hechtner, Frank & Massarrat-Mashhadi, Nima & Sielaff, Christian, 2012. "Eine Analyse zur Einkommensteuerbelastung und Wirkung der kalten Progression der vergangenen 20 Jahre in Deutschland," arqus Discussion Papers in Quantitative Tax Research 137, arqus - Arbeitskreis Quantitative Steuerlehre.
    3. Martin Feldstein, 1979. "Adjusting Depreciation in an Inflationary Economy: Indexing versus Acceleration," NBER Working Papers 0395, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    4. John B. Loomis, 2013. "Incorporating distributional issues into benefit–cost analysis: why, how, and two empirical examples using non-market valuation," Chapters, in: Scott O. Farrow & Richard Zerbe, Jr. (ed.), Principles and Standards for Benefit–Cost Analysis, chapter 9, pages 294-316, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    5. Frank Crowley & John Eakins & Declan Jordan, 2012. "Participation,Expenditure and Regressivity in the Irish Lottery:Evidence from Irish Household Budget Survey 2004/2005," The Economic and Social Review, Economic and Social Studies, vol. 43(2), pages 199-225.
    6. Nicolas Herault & Stephen P. Jenkins, 2021. "Redistributive effect and the progressivity of taxes and benefits: evidence for the UK, 1977–2018," Working Papers 592, ECINEQ, Society for the Study of Economic Inequality.
    7. Jacques Silber, 1994. "Income Distribution, Tax Structure, and the Measurement of Tax Progressivity," Public Finance Review, , vol. 22(1), pages 86-102, January.
    8. Oskar Ragnar Harmon, 1989. "A New View of the Incidence of the Property Tax: the Case of New Jersey," Public Finance Review, , vol. 17(3), pages 323-348, July.
    9. Tim Krieger & Christine Meemann & Stefan Traub, 2022. "Inequality, Life Expectancy, and the Intragenerational Redistribution Puzzle - Some Experimental Evidence," CESifo Working Paper Series 9677, CESifo.
    10. Eliasson, Jonas, 2016. "Is congestion pricing fair? Consumer and citizen perspectives on equity effects," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 52(C), pages 1-15.
    11. Lawrence H. Summers, 1981. "Inflation and the Valuation of Corporate Equities," NBER Working Papers 0824, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    12. Chakravarty, Satya R. & Sarkar, Palash, 2022. "A synthesis of local and effective tax progressivity measurement," MPRA Paper 115180, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    13. Andreas Peichl & Nico Pestel & Sebastian Siegloch, 2013. "Ist Deutschland wirklich so progressiv? Einkommensumverteilung im europäischen Vergleich," Vierteljahrshefte zur Wirtschaftsforschung / Quarterly Journal of Economic Research, DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research, vol. 82(1), pages 111-127.
    14. John Bishop & K. Chow & John Formby & Chih-Chin Ho, 1997. "Did Tax Reform Reduce Actual US Progressivity? Evidence from the Taxpayer Compliance Measurement Program," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 4(2), pages 177-197, May.
    15. Mary Beal & Mary O. Borg & Harriet Stranahan, 2017. "The Equity Effects of Property Tax Caps: Evidence from Florida," Academic Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies, Richtmann Publishing Ltd, vol. 6, July.
    16. You-Yi Guo & Jin-Xu Lin & Shih-Mo Lin, 2022. "The Distribution Effects of a Carbon Tax on Urban and Rural Households in China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(13), pages 1-15, June.
    17. Xavier Labandeira & José M Labeaga & Jordi J Teixidó, 2022. "Major Reforms in Electricity Pricing: Evidence from a Quasi-Experiment," The Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 132(644), pages 1517-1541.
    18. Lin, Joanne Yuh-Jye & Jenelius, Erik & Cebecauer, Matej & Rubensson, Isak & Chen, Cynthia, 2023. "The equity of public transport crowding exposure," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 110(C).
    19. West, Sarah E., 2004. "Distributional effects of alternative vehicle pollution control policies," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 88(3-4), pages 735-757, March.
    20. Guo, Shuocheng & Kontou, Eleftheria, 2021. "Disparities and equity issues in electric vehicles rebate allocation," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 154(C).

    More about this item

    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:sae:pubfin:v:15:y:1987:i:1:p:27-44. 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: SAGE Publications (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.