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Tax Competition and Income Inequality: Why did the Welfare State Survive?

Author

Listed:
  • Troeger, Vera

    (University of Warwick)

  • Plumper, Thomas

    (University of Essex)

Abstract

Contrary to the belief of many, tax competition did not undermine the foundations of the welfare state and did not even abolish the taxation of capital. Instead, tax competition caused governments to shift the tax burden from capital to labor, thereby increasing income inequality in liberal market economies that traditionally redistribute income by relatively high effective capital taxes and relatively low effective labor taxes. In contrast, income inequality did increase little or not at all in social welfare states that dominantly use social security transfers to redistribute income. Governments in social welfare states found it easy to maintain high social expenditures because they increasingly taxed labor, which is relatively immobile, to finance social security transfers. We test the predictions of this theory using a simultaneous equation approach that accounts for the endogeneity of tax policies, fiscal policies, and deficits.

Suggested Citation

  • Troeger, Vera & Plumper, Thomas, 2012. "Tax Competition and Income Inequality: Why did the Welfare State Survive?," CAGE Online Working Paper Series 83, Competitive Advantage in the Global Economy (CAGE).
    • Handle: RePEc:cge:wacage:83
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    File URL: http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/economics/research/centres/cage/manage/publications/83.2012_troeger.pdf
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Chih-Wen Mao, 2016. "Growth, income inequality, and capital income taxes: evidence from a seemingly unrelated regression model on panel data," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 36(3), pages 1463-1478.
    2. Michaël Zemmour, 2012. "Tax competition and the move from insurance to assistance," Documents de travail du Centre d'Economie de la Sorbonne 12090r, Université Panthéon-Sorbonne (Paris 1), Centre d'Economie de la Sorbonne, revised Mar 2013.

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