IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/nbr/nberwo/4254.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Capital Gains Taxation and Realizations: Evidence from Interstate Comparisons

Author

Listed:
  • William T. Bogart
  • William M. Gentry

Abstract

Despite numerous studies of the relation between income taxes and capital garns realizations, the revenue consequences of reducing capital gains tax rates remain unclear. However, an important source of cross-sectional variation has been neglected in this line of research: since both the tax base and the tax rate vary among states, the marginal tax rate on capital gains differs among otherwise identical individuals located in different states. The interstate variation in the tax consequences of realizing capital gains implies that the incentive to realize gains varies across states. This paper documents the interstate variation in capital gains taxation and examines the relation between capital gains taxes and aggregated state-level realizations. For each state, we construct marginal tax rates on capital gains for the highest state income tax bracket for 1982 through 1990. Using state-level aggregated data rather than data on individual taxpayers alleviates the problem that the marginal tax rate is endogenous to the amount of capital gains realized. Panel estimates indicate that capital gains realizations are negatively related to capital gains tax rates. The estimated elasticity is smaller than that found by most researchers using panel data, with a point estimate of - 0.67 in our basic specification.

Suggested Citation

  • William T. Bogart & William M. Gentry, 1993. "Capital Gains Taxation and Realizations: Evidence from Interstate Comparisons," NBER Working Papers 4254, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
  • Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:4254
    Note: PE
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.nber.org/papers/w4254.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Auten, Gerald E. & Burman, Leonard E. & Randolph, William C., 1989. "Estimation and Interpretation of Capital Gains Realization Behavior: Evidence From Panel Data," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association;National Tax Journal, vol. 42(3), pages 353-374, September.
    2. Lawrence Lindsey, 1987. "Rates, Realizations, and Revenues of Capital Gains," NBER Chapters, in: Taxes and Capital Formation, pages 17-26, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    3. Auten, Gerald E. & Burman, Leonard E. & Randolph, William C., 1989. "Estimation and Interpretation of Capital Gains Realization Behavior: Evidence from Panel Data," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association, vol. 42(3), pages 353-74, September.
    4. Martin Feldstein, 1987. "The Effects of Taxation on Capital Accumulation," NBER Books, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc, number feld87-1.
    5. Martin Feldstein & Joel Slemrod & Shlomo Yitzhaki, 1980. "The Effects of Taxation on the Selling of Corporate Stock and the Realization of Capital Gains," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 94(4), pages 777-791.
    6. Lynn E. Browne, 1992. "Why New England went the way of Texas rather than California," New England Economic Review, Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, issue Jan, pages 23-41.
    7. Lawrence B. Lindsey, 1987. "Capital Gains Rates, Realizations, and Revenues," NBER Chapters, in: The Effects of Taxation on Capital Accumulation, pages 69-100, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    8. Gerald E. Auten & Charles T. Clotfelter, 1982. "Permanent versus Transitory Tax Effects and the Realization of Capital Gains," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 97(4), pages 613-632.
    9. Joel Slemrod & William Shobe, 1990. "The Tax Elasticity of Capital Gains Realizations: Evidence from a Panel of Taxpayers," NBER Working Papers 3237, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    10. Alan J. Auerbach, 1988. "Capital Gains Taxation in the United States: Realizations, Revenue, and Rhetoric," Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, Economic Studies Program, The Brookings Institution, vol. 19(2), pages 595-638.
    11. Joseph J. Minarik, 1984. "The Effects of Taxation on the Selling of Corporate Stock and the Realization of Capital Gains: Comment," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 99(1), pages 93-110.
    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. Stefanie Stantcheva, 2020. "Dynamic Taxation," Annual Review of Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 12(1), pages 801-831, August.
    2. Adam M. Lavecchia & Alisa Tazhitdinova, 2021. "Permanent and Transitory Responses to Capital Gains Taxes: Evidence from a Lifetime Exemption in Canada," NBER Working Papers 28514, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    3. Burman, Leonard E & Randolph, William C, 1994. "Measuring Permanent Responses to Capital-Gains Tax Changes in Panel Data," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 84(4), pages 794-809, September.
    4. Poterba, James M, 1987. "Tax Evasion and Capital Gains Taxation," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 77(2), pages 234-239, May.
    5. Patric H. Hendershott & Yunhi Won, 1991. "The Long-Run Impact on Federal Tax Revenues and Capital Allocation of a Cut in the Capital Gains Tax Rate," Public Finance Review, , vol. 19(1), pages 3-21, January.
    6. Benjamin C. Ayers & Craig E. Lefanowicz & John R. Robinson, 2007. "Capital Gains Taxes and Acquisition Activity: Evidence of the Lock†in Effect," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 24(2), pages 315-344, June.
    7. Jacob, Martin, 2014. "Cross-base tax elasticity of capital gains," arqus Discussion Papers in Quantitative Tax Research 169, arqus - Arbeitskreis Quantitative Steuerlehre.
    8. Mariger, Randall P., 1995. "Taxes, Capital Gains Realizations, and Revenues: A Critical Review and Some New Results," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association, vol. 48(3), pages 447-62, September.
    9. Slemrod, Joel, 1992. "Do Taxes Matter? Lessons from the 1980's," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 82(2), pages 250-256, May.
    10. Athiphat Muthitacharoen, 2010. "The Impact of the Estate Tax on Capital Gains Realizations: Evidence from the Taxpayer Relief Act of 1997: Working Paper 2010-08," Working Papers 21941, Congressional Budget Office.
    11. Alan J. Auerbach & Leonard E. Burman & Jonathan Siegel, 1998. "Capital Gains Taxation and Tax Avoidance: New Evidence from Panel Data," NBER Working Papers 6399, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    12. Joel Slemrod & William Shobe, 1990. "The Tax Elasticity of Capital Gains Realizations: Evidence from a Panel of Taxpayers," NBER Working Papers 3237, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    13. Auten, Gerald & Joulfaian, David, 2001. "Bequest taxes and capital gains realizations," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 81(2), pages 213-229, August.
    14. Gerald E. Auten & Joseph J. Cordes, 1991. "Policy Watch: Cutting Capital Gains Taxes," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 5(1), pages 181-192, Winter.
    15. Niemann, Rainer & Sureth, Caren, 2009. "Investment effects of capital gains taxation under simultaneous investment and abandonment flexibility," arqus Discussion Papers in Quantitative Tax Research 77, arqus - Arbeitskreis Quantitative Steuerlehre.
    16. Mihir A. Desai & William M. Gentry, 2004. "The Character and Determinants of Corporate Capital Gains," NBER Chapters, in: Tax Policy and the Economy, Volume 18, pages 1-36, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    17. Slemrod, Joel, 1989. "Rank Reversals and the Tax Elasticity of Capital Gain Realizations," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association;National Tax Journal, vol. 42(4), pages 503-507, December.
    18. Barrett, Kevin S. & McGuirk, Anya M. & Steinberg, Richard S., 1997. "Further Evidence on the Dynamic Impact of Taxes on Charitable Giving," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association;National Tax Journal, vol. 50(2), pages 321-334, June.
    19. Auerbach, Alan J., 1989. "Capital Gains Taxation and Tax Reform," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association, vol. 42(3), pages 391-401, September.
    20. Sven-Olov Daunfeldt & Ulrika Praski-Ståhlgren & Niklas Rudholm, 2010. "Do high taxes lock-in capital gains? Evidence from a dual income tax system," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 145(1), pages 25-38, October.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • H24 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Personal Income and Other Nonbusiness Taxes and Subsidies

    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:nbr:nberwo:4254. 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: the person in charge (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/nberrus.html .

    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.