Optimal Intertemporal Taxationon Consumption and the Term Structure of Government Debt
This paper addresses the time-consistency problem of optimal policy when intertemporal prices are inflexible. For small, open economies facing given world interest rates, it shows that a consumption tax, rather than a tax on wage income, is time-consistent under a variety of circumstances, even incl...
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| Format: | eBook |
| Language: | English |
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Washington, D.C.
International Monetary Fund
1988
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| Series: | IMF Working Papers
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| Collection: | International Monetary Fund - Collection details see MPG.ReNa |
| Summary: | This paper addresses the time-consistency problem of optimal policy when intertemporal prices are inflexible. For small, open economies facing given world interest rates, it shows that a consumption tax, rather than a tax on wage income, is time-consistent under a variety of circumstances, even including some cases where the optimal tax rate is not constant over time. This result, when it applies, restores the neutrality of the term structure of government debt, and reaffirms the tax-smoothing theory of debt determination |
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| Physical Description: | 20 pages |
| ISBN: | 9781451942729 |