Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/191629 
Authors: 
Year of Publication: 
2018
Series/Report no.: 
SOEPpapers on Multidisciplinary Panel Data Research No. 1002
Publisher: 
Deutsches Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung (DIW), Berlin
Abstract: 
The ability-to-pay approach assesses taxes paid as a sacrifice by the taxpayers. This raises the question of how to define and how to measure it: in absolute, relative, or marginal terms? U.S. respondents prefer a tax schedule that is either a pure (absolute) Equal Sacrifice or a mixture of Equal Sacrifice and Utilitarianism [Weinzierl, 2014]. To determine whether Germans prefer absolute, relative, or marginal Equal Sacrifice principle for their income taxation, I use a question item from the German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP) to obtain information on the level of taxes individuals consider as fair. I estimate tax and transfer schedules with regard to three Equal Sacrifice definitions and analyze which one of the three best fits the data. The absolute and the relative Equal Sacrifice principle are the dominant candidates in terms of statistical fit.
Subjects: 
Equal Sacrifice
Optimal Taxation
Fair Taxation
JEL: 
H21
D63
Document Type: 
Working Paper

Files in This Item:
File
Size





Items in EconStor are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated.