Jukka Pirttilä

Income Tax, Commodity Tax and Environmental Policy

Using the self-selection approach to tax analysis, thepaper analyses the impact of environmental externalities on Pareto-efficientnon-linear income tax, proportional commodity taxes and publicexpenditure. Consideration of externalities within this frameworkreveals intuitive insights into environmental tax policy, suggestingthat some earlier conclusions drawn in the relevant literaturemight be misleading. The results indicate that, while the externality‘sdirect harmful impact raises marginal tax rates, the influencethrough the self-selection constraint tends to decrease the rise.We also derive conditions under which the Pigovian tax can bedetermined purely on the basis of internalizing the externality.

On optimal non-linear taxation and public good provision in an overlapping generations economy

Using the self-selection approach to tax analysis within an OLG framework, the paper examines optimal non-linear labour and capital income taxation and the provision of a durable public good. Under endogenous wages, the marginal tax rules depend, among other things, on the income earning abilities of the households and suggest a novel rationale for distorting capital income taxation. For the public good, the paper derives a dynamic analogue of the second-best Samuelson rule, encompassing both inter- and intragenerational redistributive considerations, and characterises special conditions under which the first-best provision rule holds under distorting taxation.

A ‘Leaky Bucket’ in the Real World: Estimating Inequality Aversion Using Survey Data

Existing evidence of inequality aversion relies on data from class-room experiments where subjects face hypothetical questions. This paper estimates the magnitude of inequality aversion using representative survey data, with questions related to the real-economy situations the respondents face. The results reveal that the magnitude of inequality aversion can be measured in a meaningful way using survey data, but the estimates depend dramatically on the framing of the question. No matter how measured, the revealed inequality aversion predicts opinions on a wide range of questions related to the welfare state, such as the level of taxation, tax progressivity and the structure of unemployment benefits.

Income Shifting within a Dual Income Tax System: Evidence from the Finnish Tax Reform of 1993

Dual income tax systems can suffer from income that shifts from progressively taxed labour income to capital income, which is taxed at a lower, flat rate. This paper empirically examines the 1993 Finnish dual income tax reform, which radically reduced the marginal tax rates on capital income for some, but not all, taxpayers. We measure how overall taxable income and the relative shares of capital income and labour income reacted to the reform. We find that the reform led to a small positive impact on overall taxable income, but part of the positive response was probably offset by income shifting among the self-employed.

Publicly Provided Private Goods and Redistribution: A General Equilibrium Analysis

Public provision of private goods is examined within a self-selection framework where production depends on labor supply of different households and the level of public provision. It is shown that productivity and wage-structure effects can create a role for public provision, even if preferences are weakly separable between goods and leisure. Public provision of education may offer an intuitively appealing case for the production-side impacts. We also address the reasons for public provision in a dynamic, overlapping generations economy, whereby public provision may affect efficiency and social costs of redistribution of future generations as well. Copyright 2002 by The editors of the Scandinavian Journal of Economics.

Firms and Public Service Provision in Russia

This paper reports first results from a survey of 404 middle-sized and large manufacturing firms from 40 Russian regions in April-June 2003. We examine the extent of social service and infrastructure provision by the firms and the firms’ assessment of the quality of public infrastructure and the regulatory environment. Background information of ownership, investment, performance, competition, and finance decisions of the firms is also gathered. The data reveal that despite major divestments of social services during 1990s, a great majority of firms still provide at least some form of social services. For example, 56% of the firms have their own housing or support local housing, and 73% of the firms have recreation facilities or support employee’s recreation activities. While managers view the social service provision as non-essential and costly, many of the firms continue to provide these services, even to users other than their own workforce. The quality of public infrastructure is generally assessed as being good or satisfactory; the respondents were the least satisfied with the quality of roads. Over a half of the firms provide their own heat, but mainly due to technological reasons – although public service interruptions do occur – and 24% of the firms give support to the maintenance and construction of public road network. The regulatory burden the firms face continues to be severe. In more than half of the firms, for example, the general manager has to spend more than two weeks in negotiations about public infrastructure with the authorities. These descriptive results indicate that there is still a lot scope for improvement in the quality and quantity of public service provision in Russia. Enterprises are still engaged rather heavily in social service provision, road network would require improvements, and the easing of regulatory burden should continue. Addressing these questions is likely to be vital for the sustainability of investments and growth in Russia. The paper is part of the project “Infrastructure and Welfare Services in Russia: Enterprises as Beneficiaries and Service Providers” financed by the Academy of Finland (project number 200936), the World Bank, and Yrjo Jahnsson Foundation. The project has also received support from the Bank of Finland Institute for Economies in Transition.

Moral Hazard, Income Taxation and Prospect Theory

The standard theory of optimal income taxation under uncertainty has been developed under the assumption that individuals maximise expected utility. However, prospect theory has now been established as an alternative model of individual behaviour, with empirical support. This paper explores the theory of optimal income taxation under uncertainty when individuals behave according to the tenets of prospect theory. It is seen that many of the standard results are modified in interesting ways. The first-order approach for solving the optimisation problem is not valid over the domain of losses, and the marginal tax schedule offers full insurance around the reference consumption level. The implications of non-welfarist objectives under income uncertainty are also examined.

The political economy of reforms: Empirical evidence from post- communist transition in the 1990s

Using a novel data set from post-communist countries in the 1990s, this paper examines linkages between political constraints, economic reforms and growth. A dynamic panel analysis suggests public support for reform is negatively associated with income inequality and unemployment. Both the ex post and ex ante political constraints of public support affect progress in economic reform, which in turn influences economic growth. The findings highlight that while economic reforms are needed to foster growth, they must be designed so that they do not undermine political support for reform.

Fiscal Explanations for Inflation: Any Evidence from Transition Economies?

Recent arguments, motivated partly by the new fiscal theory of price level, suggest that fiscal deficits undermine price stability in transition economies. This paper addresses these claims by examining vector-autoregressive models of inflation for three transition economies (Bulgaria, Romania and Russia). The results indicate that fiscal deficits have increased inflation in Bulgaria and Romania but not in the case of Russia. In Bulgaria and Romania, money aggregates and exchange rate have also been more influential to inflation than fiscal deficits. The analysis based on this method therefore suggests that while fiscal deficits have some influence on inflation, monetary factors mostly determine inflation in these three countries.

Public provision, commodity demand and hours of work: An empirical analysis

Atkinson and Stiglitz (Journal of Public Economics 1976) show that when the government has access to non-linear income taxation and consumer preferences are separable between consumption and leisure, there is no need for differentiated commodity taxation. This paper examines the empirical validity of this claim using consumption data from Finland. The data have extensive information on commodity demand, the use of public services and hours of work. When labour income is controlled for in a semi-parametric way, we find that capital income and housing expenses are negatively associated with hours of work, whereas the use of child care is somewhat positively correlated with labour supply. These results suggest that capital income and housing should be taxed whereas day care could perhaps be subsidised.