Monographs 2007 : "Taxing wealth - what for?"
"An Economic Rationale for the Net Wealth Tax - Does It Exist?"- Jan Schnellenbach
Abstract: This paper surveys possible motivations having a net wealth tax. After giving a short overview over the state of wealth taxation in OECD countries, we discuss both popular arguments for such a tax, as well as economic arguments. It is argued that classical normative principles of taxation known from public economics cannot give a sound justification for a net wealth tax. The efficiency-related effects are also discussed and shown to be theoretically ambiguous, while empirical evidence hints at a negative effect on GDP growth. Finally, it is argued that the existence of net wealth taxes is better explained with imperfections of collective decision-making than with economic rationality.
"Taxonomy of Wealth Taxes" - Philipp Bagus
Abstract: Wealth taxes are portrayed as being fair, and a rather painless way to increase funding for strapped government programs. So then, why should we consider wealth taxes? To what extent are these taxes a matter of justice and to what extent are these taxes a matter of economics? Are wealth taxes harmful or helpful to an economy? Are wealth taxes fair obligations belonging to the entrepreneur or unjust claims made by society? To answer these questions we will proceed as follows: First, we will analyze the arguments given to justify wealth taxation. Then, we will analyze the effects of wealth taxes (i.e. taxes on accumulated capital) contrasted with the effects of income taxes. After this we will explore the effects of wealth taxes upon the economy, such as wealth transfer taxes, property taxes, net wealth taxes, and capital gains taxes. We will then conclude in determining whether we should consider wealth taxation as a viable approach to revenue.
"Because that's where the money is!" - Daniel Pellerin
Abstract : When serial bank robber Willie Sutton was apprehended at last, someone asked him why he had robbed so many banks: “Because that’s where the money is,” Sutton famously replied. The idea of taxing wealth, whatever its merits, seems to suggest itself as naturally. One may well doubt whether it is wise or prudent to equate any form of taxation so casually with grand larceny; less doubtful is the fact that both designs on the money of some by the ambitions of others are likely to end in disappointment. Adam Smith once came to the melancholy conclusion that “There is no art which one government sooner learns of another, than that of draining money from the pockets of the people.” If only governments were as ready to learn from each other’s failures...
Monographs 2006 : "Tax and Justice"
Taxation and Justice : A classical Liberal Perspective by Petra Orogvanyiova
First prize (10 000 €) on IREF Contest 2005 on Taxation and Justice
Abstract: We attempt to present a classical liberal perspective on the subject of taxation and justice. We start by reviewing the development of the notion of justice over time and across various schools of thought. We then proceed to examine John Rawls' theory of justice and its policy implications and economic theory of optimal taxation. After finding both approaches unsatisfactory, we defend a libertarian stand on the issue of justice. The main result of our reflections are three criteria which we afterwards use to examine normatively di¤erent ways of taxation. We conclude by saying that current tax systems satisfy neither of these criteria and deserve being changed.
From taxation to Justice Pierre Bessard
Second prize (5 000 €) on IREF Contest 2005 on Taxation and Justice
Abstract:Taxation has become one of the key policy challenges in most advanced countries. Demographic trends reinforce the prospective threat of increased pressure on taxpayers to fund existing welfare programs, while institutional competition between European countries and from other regions plays an increasingly decisive role in keeping governments in check. Central and Eastern European countries adopting proportional taxation systems have attracted additional investment from elsewhere and generated incentive structures conducive to entrepreneurial risk-taking. Other regions such as Asia and the United States enjoy marginally superior economic growth than many parts of Europe thanks to a less penalizing environment for production. Partly as a result, government debt – which may be viewed as deferred taxes – has reached new highs in many countries.
Taxation and Justice by Daniel Pellerin
Second prize (5 000 €) on IREF Contest 2005 on Taxation and Justice
Abstract: However much may set apart Hobbes and Locke, these two progenitors of our modern intellectual tradition are in full agreement on one cardinal point, namely "that civil government is the proper remedy for the inconveniencies of the state of nature, which must certainly be great." For anyone impressed with the arguments of these two and many other great thinkers, taxes must appear as more than "what we pay for civilized society", as Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., famously put it. Taxes are what we pay for living in any kind of lasting peace and security at all. How far the scope of legitimate state action might extend, what revenue might be necessary to sustain it, and how benefits and burdens are to be distributed, are matters of conviction and debate; what is certain, however, is that the requisite expenses will not be trivial, and hence that the serious question of just taxation cannot be wished away. Even for so staunch an erstwhile libertarian as Richard Epstein, "The sad truth is that even the limited government called for by laissez-faire is a large and complex undertaking" - and thus an expensive one. Nor is it at all self-evident, as none less than Adam Smith reminds us, that taxes deserve to be associated with servitude; on the contrary, proud and self-confident citizens ought to consider their payment of taxes "a badge, not of slavery, but of liberty", denoting that while they are indeed subject to government, they are their own masters rather than someone else's property.
Monographs 2005 : "Public Debt, Public Spending and Economic Growth"
Looking Without Success for a Good Reason not to Worry about Public Debt by Pierre Garello et Vesselina Spassova
Abstract : Few will debate the proposition that the rate at which an economy grows has an impact on its debt and that, inversely, public debt impacts growth. Opinions among economists however start to diverge when dealing with the magnitude and direction of such impacts. To decide these questions macroeconomic modelling and econometrics have been often relied upon. Here, however, another path has been taken to approach study of the interactions between national debt and economic growth.
Drawing a parallel with the case of a household economy, we believe—admittedly without great originality—that public debt can lead to greater or lesser public wealth depending on how the borrowed capital is used. For this reason we have decided to look first at the structure of public spending: What are the respective shares of consumption and investment expenditure? We will see that, in a country such as France, most public money is spent on consumption and little on investment, so that sound reasons exist for concern about an increasing public debt.
Public Spending & Growth par Patrick Minford and Jiang Wang
Introduction: There is by now a huge and rapidly expanding- literature on 'endogenous growth'. In this literature certain ingredients 'enter the production function'- that is contribute to the generation of output- which are themselves enhanced in their effects by the extra output. Hence growth may enter a 'self-feeding' phase when these elements are present or increased beyond a certain threshold. Such elements are said to include education or personal knowledge ('human capital'), public infrastructure and research and development...
Monographs 2004 : "Taxation and Economic Growth"
Taxation and Economic Growth: Reconciling Intuition and Theory par Dalibor Rohac
First prize (10 000€) on IREF Contest 2004 on Taxation and Economic Growth
Abstract: The present paper deals with the relationship between taxation and economic growth.After proposing a very general and theoretical discussion of the nature of taxation, wereview the introduction of taxation into various models of economic growth, bothexogenous and endogenous. In the simplest version of endogenous growth models weshow how taxation affects growth rates. We examine the results of different empiricalstudies and simulations, compare the effects of various modes of taxation and offer acritical examination of fiscal role of government.
Taxation, Individual Incentives and Economic Growth par Alex Robson
Second prize (5 000€) on IREF Contest 2004 on Taxation and Economic Growth
Abstract: Economists have long recognized that high levels of taxation may have adverseconsequences for individual economic incentives. Standard microeconomic measures ofthe welfare costs of wage taxation reveal that these adverse effects can be considerable.To the extent that economic growth is a sensible indicator of economic welfare, taxeswhich reduce welfare will also tend to reduce economic growth. Thus, as a generalproposition, higher tax rates should tend to have negative consequences for economicgrowth, but certain kinds of tax structures may tend to favour economic growth morethan others.Overall, existing empirical evidence tends to suggest that higher taxes are associatedwith lower economic growth, but since no econometric test can prove the direction ofcausation in the true sense of that term, the direction of causality remains unclear.Nevertheless, this paper finds that for the case of personal income taxes, a positivecorrelation between higher growth and higher personal income tax rates does not tendto show up in OECD data for the 1980-2000 period. Indeed, in economies wheresubstantial tax cuts took place during this period, per capita economic growth rateswere almost double those enjoyed by economies where no substantial tax cuts took place.
