Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/161290 
Year of Publication: 
2017
Series/Report no.: 
IZA Discussion Papers No. 10667
Publisher: 
Institute of Labor Economics (IZA), Bonn
Abstract: 
We compile data spanning the period 1900 2014 and up to 30 countries to study long-run patterns in the tax elasticity of top incomes. Our results show that top tax elasticities vary tremendously over time; they were medium-to-low before 1950, virtually zero during the postwar era up to 1980 and have thereafter increased to unprecedented levels. We document a strong income gradient in tax response within the top, underlining the importance to study even small top groups separately. Several mechanisms are investigated. Tax-driven income shifting between wage and capital income is important in the very top. Wars, financial crises, and country-specific effects and trends have bearing on top elasticities whereas standard macroeconomic factors and indicators of "real responses" do not.
Subjects: 
taxation
income inequality
economic history
JEL: 
D31
H21
H24
H26
N40
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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