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A tax on robots? Some food for thought

Author

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  • Germana Bottone

    (Ministry of Economy and Finance of Italy)

Abstract

Tax administrations face new and ever greater challenges. Some data collected show that the use of industrial robots has been increasing since 1990; therefore their entry in our life is not more a fantasy and it will generate relevant changes in legal, economic and social systems. As far as tax policy is concerned, if robots have a high elasticity of substitution with labour a fall in tax revenue is expected, as labour taxes represent a significant portion of tax revenue. In addition, since robotization seems to jeopardise especially routine and low skilled workers, governments need growing public resources to be invested in education and training system. Starting from these premises, the paper deals with the possible design and the effects of the introduction of a robot tax.

Suggested Citation

  • Germana Bottone, 2018. "A tax on robots? Some food for thought," Working Papers wp2018-3, Ministry of Economy and Finance, Department of Finance.
    • Handle: RePEc:ahg:wpaper:wp2018-3
    as

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    File URL: https://www.finanze.gov.it/export/sites/finanze/.galleries/Documenti/Varie/dfwp3_2018.pdf
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Artificial intelligence; Government Expenditures and Education; Fiscal policy;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • O33 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights - - - Technological Change: Choices and Consequences; Diffusion Processes
    • H52 - Public Economics - - National Government Expenditures and Related Policies - - - Government Expenditures and Education
    • E62 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Macroeconomic Policy, Macroeconomic Aspects of Public Finance, and General Outlook - - - Fiscal Policy; Modern Monetary Theory

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