IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/pubfin/v18y1990i1p65-76.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Is a Consumption Tax Equivalent to a Wage Tax?

Author

Listed:
  • Laurence S. Seidman

    (University of Delaware)

Abstract

Is a consumption tax equivalent to a wage tax? This article examines this question in a two-period life-cycle model with Cobb-Douglas production and utility functcons. Three taxes are compared: income, wage, and consumption. The article shows how equivalence depends crucially on government debt policy. If the government varies the government-debt/capital-stock ratio so that each tax achieves the same steady-state capital per worker, then the consumption tax is equivalent to the wage tax: The representative individual chooses the same consumption path and attains the same lifetime utility. However, if the government maintains the same debt/capital ratio under the three taxes, then the consumption tax is not equivalent to the wage tax: The consumption tax achieves a higher capital per worker than the income tax, while the wage tax achieves a lower capital per worker, and the representative individual chooses a different consumption path under all three taxes. Economists should therefore indicate the crucial role of government debt policy in any discussion of tax equivalence.

Suggested Citation

  • Laurence S. Seidman, 1990. "Is a Consumption Tax Equivalent to a Wage Tax?," Public Finance Review, , vol. 18(1), pages 65-76, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:pubfin:v:18:y:1990:i:1:p:65-76
    DOI: 10.1177/109114219001800104
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/109114219001800104
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/109114219001800104?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. Kotlikoff, Laurence J, 1984. "Taxation and Savings: A Neoclassical Perspective," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 22(4), pages 1576-1629, December.
    2. Seidman, Laurence S, 1983. "Taxes in a Life Cycle Growth Model with Bequests and Inheritances," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 73(3), pages 437-441, June.
    3. Alan J. Auerbach & Laurence J. Kotlikoff, 1983. "National Savings, Economic Welfare, and the Structure of Taxation," NBER Chapters, in: Behavioral Simulation Methods in Tax Policy Analysis, pages 459-498, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    4. Evans, Owen J, 1983. "Tax Policy, the Interest Elasticity of Saving, and Capital Accumulation: Numerical Analysis of Theoretical Models," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 73(3), pages 398-410, June.
    5. Summers, Lawrence H, 1981. "Capital Taxation and Accumulation in a Life Cycle Growth Model," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 71(4), pages 533-544, September.
    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. Thomas Gaube & Robert Schwager, 2004. "Does Old Capital Matter for Implementing a Pareto-Improving Tax Reform?," Public Finance Review, , vol. 32(2), pages 220-231, March.
    2. Homburg, Stefan, 2010. "Allgemeine Steuerlehre: Kapitel 1. Grundbegriffe der Steuerlehre," EconStor Books, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, number 92547.

    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. Summers, Lawrence H, 1984. "The After-Tax Rate of Return Affects Private Savings," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 74(2), pages 249-253, May.
    2. Miguel-Angel Lopez-Garcia, 1997. "When) is Consumption Taxation Equivalent to Wage Taxation ?," Public Finance Review, , vol. 25(1), pages 83-101, January.
    3. Katheline Schubert, 1992. "Cycle de vie et élasticité de l'épargne des ménages au taux d'intérêt," Économie et Prévision, Programme National Persée, vol. 104(3), pages 115-128.
    4. Raymond G. Batina, 1999. "A Differential Incidence Analysis of a Tax Reform From an Income Tax to a Consumption Tax in the Presence of Bequests," Public Finance Review, , vol. 27(3), pages 353-370, May.
    5. R. Glenn Hubbard, 1984. "'Precautionary' Saving Revisited: Social Security, Individual Welfare, and the Capital Stock," NBER Working Papers 1430, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    6. repec:zbw:bofrdp:1989_029 is not listed on IDEAS
    7. David G. Hartman, 1985. "On the Optimal Taxation of Capital Income in the Open Economy," NBER Working Papers 1550, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    8. Kerttula, Anne, 1989. "Capital income taxation and household saving," Research Discussion Papers 29/1989, Bank of Finland.
    9. R. Glenn Hubbard & Kenneth L. Judd, 1985. "Social Security and Individual Welfare: Precautionary Saving, LiquidityConstraints, and the Payroll Tax," NBER Working Papers 1736, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    10. Kotlikoff, Laurence J, 1988. "Intergenerational Transfers and Savings," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 2(2), pages 41-58, Spring.
    11. Hubbard, R. Glenn & Skinner, Jonathan & Zeldes, Stephen P., 1994. "The importance of precautionary motives in explaining individual and aggregate saving," Carnegie-Rochester Conference Series on Public Policy, Elsevier, vol. 40(1), pages 59-125, June.
    12. Joel Slemrod, 1982. "Down-Payment Constraints: Tax Policy Effects in a Growing Economy With Rental and Owner-Occupied Housing," Public Finance Review, , vol. 10(2), pages 193-217, April.
    13. Kotlikoff, Laurence J., 2002. "Generational policy," Handbook of Public Economics, in: A. J. Auerbach & M. Feldstein (ed.), Handbook of Public Economics, edition 1, volume 4, chapter 27, pages 1873-1932, Elsevier.
    14. Orazio P. Attanasio & Guglielmo Weber, 2010. "Consumption and Saving: Models of Intertemporal Allocation and Their Implications for Public Policy," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 48(3), pages 693-751, September.
    15. Michael Carlos Best & James S Cloyne & Ethan Ilzetzki & Henrik J Kleven, 2020. "Estimating the Elasticity of Intertemporal Substitution Using Mortgage Notches," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 87(2), pages 656-690.
    16. Lewis, Kenneth A. & Seidman, Laurence S., 2001. "The Consumption Tax and Transitional Relief," Journal of Macroeconomics, Elsevier, vol. 23(1), pages 99-120, January.
    17. Beverly, Sondra G. & Sherraden, Michael, 1999. "Institutional determinants of saving: implications for low-income households and public policy," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 28(4), pages 457-473.
    18. Laurence J. Kotlikoff & Laurence J. Kotlikoff & Willi Leibfritz, 1999. "From Deficit Delusion to the Fiscal Balance Rule: Looking for an Economically Meaningful Way to Assess Fiscal Policy," NBER Chapters, in: Generational Accounting around the World, pages 9-30, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    19. Laurence Kotlikoff & Felix Kubler & Andrey Polbin & Jeffrey Sachs & Simon Scheidegger, 2021. "Making Carbon Taxation A Generational Win Win," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 62(1), pages 3-46, February.
    20. Timothy P. Roth, 1989. "Two-Stage Optimization, Tax Rates, and Saving: Some Time Series Evidence," Public Finance Review, , vol. 17(4), pages 375-390, October.

    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:18:y:1990:i:1:p:65-76. 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.