Notes on Estate Taxes, Redistribution, and the Concept of Balanced Growth Path Incidence

Articles:

Title:: Notes on Estate Taxes, Redistribution, and the Concept of Balanced Growth Path Incidence
Author(s):: Stiglitz, Joseph E.
Date:: 1978
Type:: Articles
Department:: Business
Volume:: 86
Permanent URL:: http://hdl.handle.net/10022/AC:P:13914
Book/Journal Title:: Journal of Political Economy
Abstract:: This paper shows that, because of capital accumulation effects, the estate tax may increase inequality of income and wealth. If the government takes actions to offset these accumulation effects, the tax will lead to an increase in equality of income and wealth. More generally, the paper argues that to evaluate the incidence of a tax in a growth context, one should compare policy changes which leave the aggregate capital labor ratio unchanged; we call this balanced growth incidence. But even with the capital labor ratio remaining unchanged, the estate tax may increase inequality in the distribution of consumption.
Subject(s):: Economics
Public policy