Nothing Special   »   [go: up one dir, main page]
IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/bbk/bbkefp/0408.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Cross-Border Tax Externalities: Are Budget Deficits Too Small?

Author

Listed:
  • Willem Buiter
  • Anne Sibert

    (Department of Economics, Mathematics & Statistics, Birkbeck)

Abstract
In a dynamic optimising model with costly tax collection, a tax cut by one nation creates positive externalities for the rest of the world if initial public debt stocks are positive. By reducing tax collection costs, current tax cuts boost the resources available for current private consumption, lowering the global interest rate. This pecuniary externality benefits other countries because it reduces the tax collection costs for foreign governments of current and future debt service. In the non-cooperative equilibrium, nationalistic governments do not allow for the effect of lower domestic taxes on debt service costs abroad. Taxes are too high and government budget deficits too low compared to the global cooperative equilibrium. Even in the cooperative equilibrium complete tax smoothing is not optimal: current taxes will be lower than future taxes.

Suggested Citation

  • Willem Buiter & Anne Sibert, 2004. "Cross-Border Tax Externalities: Are Budget Deficits Too Small?," Birkbeck Working Papers in Economics and Finance 0408, Birkbeck, Department of Economics, Mathematics & Statistics.
    • Handle: RePEc:bbk:bbkefp:0408
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://eprints.bbk.ac.uk/id/eprint/27110
    File Function: First version, 2004
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Kehoe, Patrick J., 1987. "Coordination of fiscal policies in a world economy," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 19(3), pages 349-376, May.
    2. Turnovsky, Stephen J., 1988. "The gains from fiscal cooperation in the two-commodity real trade model," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 25(1-2), pages 111-127, August.
    3. Stephen J. Turnovsky, 1997. "International Macroeconomic Dynamics," MIT Press Books, The MIT Press, edition 1, volume 1, number 0262201119, April.
    4. Sinn, Hans-Werner, 1990. "Tax harmonization and tax competition in Europe," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 34(2-3), pages 489-504, May.
    5. Slemrod, Joel & Yitzhaki, Shlomo, 2002. "Tax avoidance, evasion, and administration," Handbook of Public Economics, in: A. J. Auerbach & M. Feldstein (ed.), Handbook of Public Economics, edition 1, volume 3, chapter 22, pages 1423-1470, Elsevier.
    6. Frenkel, Jacob A & Razin, Assaf, 1985. "Government Spending, Debt, and International Economic Interdependence," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 95(379), pages 619-636, September.
    7. Buiter, Willem H. & Kletzer, Kenneth M., 1991. "The welfare economics of cooperative and noncooperative fiscal policy," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 15(1), pages 215-244.
    8. Barro, Robert J, 1979. "On the Determination of the Public Debt," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 87(5), pages 940-971, October.
    9. Thomas Laubach, 2009. "New Evidence on the Interest Rate Effects of Budget Deficits and Debt," Journal of the European Economic Association, MIT Press, vol. 7(4), pages 858-885, June.
    10. Chamley, Christophe, 1981. "The Welfare Cost of Capital Income Taxation in a Growing Economy," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 89(3), pages 468-496, June.
    11. Tabellini, Guido, 1990. "Domestic politics and the international coordination of fiscal policies," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 28(3-4), pages 245-265, May.
    12. Chamley, Christophe, 1986. "Optimal Taxation of Capital Income in General Equilibrium with Infinite Lives," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 54(3), pages 607-622, May.
    13. Koichi Hamada, 1966. "Strategic Aspects of Taxation on Foreign Investment Income," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 80(3), pages 361-375.
    14. Patrick J. Kehoe, 1989. "Policy Cooperation Among Benevolent Governments May Be Undesirable," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 56(2), pages 289-296.
    15. Lucas, Robert Jr., 1988. "On the mechanics of economic development," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 22(1), pages 3-42, July.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Roel Beetsma & Massimo Giuliodori, 2010. "The Macroeconomic Costs and Benefits of the EMU and Other Monetary Unions: An Overview of Recent Research," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 48(3), pages 603-641, September.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Buiter, Willem H. & Sibert, Anne C., 2016. "Government deficits in large open economies: The problem of too little public debt," Economics - The Open-Access, Open-Assessment E-Journal (2007-2020), Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW Kiel), vol. 10, pages 1-39.
    2. Willem H. Buiter & Anne Sibert & Anne C. Sibert, 2011. "Government Budget Deficits in Large Open Economies," CESifo Working Paper Series 3476, CESifo.
    3. Jiming Ha & Anne Sibert, 1997. "Strategic Capital Taxation in Large Open Economies with Mobile Capital," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 4(3), pages 243-262, July.
    4. Kollintzas, Tryphon & Philippopoulos, Apostolis & Vassilatos, Vanghelis, 1999. "Normative Aspects of Fiscal Policy in an Economic Union: a Review," CEPR Discussion Papers 2212, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    5. Kollintzas, T. Philippopoulos, A. & Vasillatos, V., 1999. "Normative Aspects of Fiscal Policy in an Economic Union: a Theoretical Review," Athens University of Economics and Business 109, Athens University of Economics and Business, Department of International and European Economic Studies.
    6. Jiming Ha & Anne Sibert, 1997. "Strategic Capital Taxation in Large Open Economies with Mobile Capital," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 4(3), pages 243-262, July.
    7. Willem H. Buiter & Clemens Grafe, 2004. "Patching up the Pact," The Economics of Transition, The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, vol. 12(1), pages 67-102, March.
    8. Etro, Federico, 2017. "Research in economics and macroeconomics," Research in Economics, Elsevier, vol. 71(3), pages 373-383.
    9. Kollintzas, T. & Philippopoulos, A. & Vasillatos, V., 1999. "Is Tax Policy Coordination Necessary?," Athens University of Economics and Business 110, Athens University of Economics and Business, Department of International and European Economic Studies.
    10. Andersen, Torben M. & Sorensen, Jan Rose, 1995. "Unemployment and fiscal policy in an economic and monetary union," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 11(1), pages 27-43, March.
    11. Turnovsky, S., 2000. "Growth in an Open Economy: some Recent Developments," Papers 5, Warwick - Development Economics Research Centre.
    12. Günther Rehme, 2007. "Economic Growth and (Re-)Distributive Policies in a Non-cooperative World," Journal of Economics, Springer, vol. 91(1), pages 1-40, May.
    13. Liontos, George & Philippopoulos, Apostolis, 2023. "Who benefits from international fiscal cooperation? The role of cross-country asymmetries," The Journal of Economic Asymmetries, Elsevier, vol. 27(C).
    14. Capolupo, Rosa, 2009. "The New Growth Theories and Their Empirics after Twenty Years," Economics - The Open-Access, Open-Assessment E-Journal (2007-2020), Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW Kiel), vol. 3, pages 1-72.
    15. Enrique G. Mendoza & Linda L. Tesar, 1995. "Supply-Side Economics in a Global Economy," NBER Working Papers 5086, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    16. van der Ploeg, F., 1990. "Macroeconomic policy coordination during the various phases of economic and monetary integration in Europe," Discussion Paper 1990-61, Tilburg University, Center for Economic Research.
    17. Eriksson, Clas, 1996. "Economic growth with endogenous labour supply," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 12(3), pages 533-544, November.
    18. F. Van der Ploeg, 1992. "Coordinación de políticas macroeconómicas en las diferentes etapas de la integración económica y monetaria en Europa," EKONOMIAZ. Revista vasca de Economía, Gobierno Vasco / Eusko Jaurlaritza / Basque Government, vol. 24(03), pages 240-286.
    19. Carmen Díaz-Roldán, "undated". "Coordination of Fiscal Policies in a Monetary Union," Working Papers on International Economics and Finance 00-09, FEDEA.
    20. Zeng, Jinli & Zhang, Jie, 2022. "Education policies and development with threshold human capital externalities," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 108(C).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    fiscal policy; international policy coordination; optimal taxation.;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • E62 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Macroeconomic Policy, Macroeconomic Aspects of Public Finance, and General Outlook - - - Fiscal Policy; Modern Monetary Theory
    • F42 - International Economics - - Macroeconomic Aspects of International Trade and Finance - - - International Policy Coordination and Transmission
    • H21 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Efficiency; Optimal Taxation

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bbk:bbkefp:0408. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: the person in charge (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.bbk.ac.uk/departments/ems/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.