Economics Dictionary of ArgumentsHome
| |||
|
| |||
| Laffer curve: The Laffer curve, also known as the Laffer tariff or Laffer hypothesis, is a theory in economics that describes the relationship between the marginal tax rate and the total tax revenue collected by the government. It is a graph that starts at 0% tax with zero revenue, rises to a maximum point, then falls back to zero revenue at 100% tax. The theory suggests that there is an optimal tax rate between 0% and 100% where the government can collect the maximum amount of revenue. See also Taxation._____________Annotation: The above characterizations of concepts are neither definitions nor exhausting presentations of problems related to them. Instead, they are intended to give a short introduction to the contributions below. – Lexicon of Arguments. | |||
| Author | Concept | Summary/Quotes | Sources |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Emmanuel Saez on Laffer Curve - Dictionary of Arguments
Saez I 153 Laffer Curve/Saez/Zucman: There’s the economy’s tax rate on one axis and the amount of tax revenue collected on the other. When the tax rate is zero, no revenue is collected, which makes sense. As the tax rate rises, revenues first increase, but as the rate is further hiked, at some point they begin to fall. When the tax rate reaches 100%, revenues are back to zero. The lesson is simple: Too much tax kills tax. Saez I 154 VsLaffer: As a diagram, the napkin displayed in the museum is incomprehensible. It has everything upside down: the axes are inverted, and the equations all have the wrong signs. But while Laffer may not have been the mathematical wizard Frank Ramsey was, he had a point. Saez I 155 New Deal: From the presidency of Franklin Roosevelt to that of Dwight Eisenhower, it was clear that the top marginal income tax rates did not add revenue. They were of the “wrong” side on the Laffer curve. They destroyed income. This was not a bug: it was the goal of the policy. The quasi-confiscatory top rates championed by Roosevelt and his successors in office were meant to reduce the income of the super-rich and thereby compress the income distribution. Saez I 156 From the late 1930s to the early 1970s, income inequality fell. The share of pre-tax national income earned by the top 1% was reduced by a factor of two, from close to 20% on the eve of World War II to barely more than 10% in the early 1970s. In 1960, for example, only 306 families earned more than $6.7 million in taxable income a year, the threshold above which income was taxed at 91%.(1) >Taxation, >Tax Avoidance, >Tax Competition, >Tax Compliance, >Tax Evasion, >Tax Havens, >Tax Incidence, >Tax Loopholes, >Tax System. 1. US Treasury Department, Internal Revenue Service. Statistics of Income: Individual Income Tax Returns 1960. Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1962. p. 32. Available at www.irs.gov/pub/irs-soi/60inar.pdf_____________Explanation of symbols: Roman numerals indicate the source, arabic numerals indicate the page number. The corresponding books are indicated on the right hand side. ((s)…): Comment by the sender of the contribution. Translations: Dictionary of Arguments The note [Concept/Author], [Author1]Vs[Author2] or [Author]Vs[term] resp. "problem:"/"solution:", "old:"/"new:" and "thesis:" is an addition from the Dictionary of Arguments. If a German edition is specified, the page numbers refer to this edition. |
Saez, Emmanuel | ||
> Counter arguments against Saez
> Counter arguments in relation to Laffer Curve
