Working Paper: NBER ID: w0337
Authors: Don Fullerton; A. Thomas King; John B. Shoven; John Whalley
Abstract: This paper presents estimates of static and dynamic general equilibrium resource allocation effects for four alternative plans for corporate and personal income tax integration in the U.S. A medium-scale numerical general equilibrium model is used which integrates the U.S. tax system with consumer demand behavior by household and producer behavior by industry. Results indicate that total integration of personal and corporate taxes would yield an annual static efficiency gain of around $4 billion (1973 dollars). Partial integration plans yield less. Dynamic effects are larger, and our analysis indicates that full integration may yield gains whose present value is as large as $400 billion or 0.8% of the discounted present value of the GNP stream to the U.S. economy after correction for population growth. Plans differ in their distributional impacts, although these findings depend on the nature of replacement taxes used to preserve government revenues. The size of dynamic resource allocation effects are sensitive to the choice of the replacement tax, while static gains are reasonably robust.
Keywords: tax integration; general equilibrium; resource allocation; corporate tax; personal income tax
JEL Codes: H24; H25
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| total integration of personal and corporate taxes (H24) | annual static efficiency gain of approximately $6 billion (D61) |
| partial integration plans (F15) | less dynamic effects compared to total integration (L15) |
| total integration of personal and corporate taxes (H24) | present value of gains could reach as high as $400 billion (G32) |
| choice of replacement tax (H29) | size of dynamic resource allocation effects (C69) |
| static efficiency gains are robust (D61) | reliability of model's estimates across various assumptions (C51) |