摘要:

This is a study of the first order incidence of government taxation and expenditure policies on the incomes of families and unattached individuals in Canada in 1970. The specific purposes of the study are twofold. The first is to estimate for calendar year 1970 the first order incidence of governments’actual tax, transfer, and expenditure policies on spending units. The second objective is to simulate the changes in this incidence that would have occurred in 1970 if the new federal personal income tax, unemployment insurance, old age sccurity and family allowance programs had been in operation during that year. The methodology is similar to that used by W. Irwin Gillespie in his pioneering 1964 study for the Royal Commission on Taxation.It is concluded that the 1970 incidence of the combined tax and transfer programs of all levels of government is broadly redistributive, with net incidence of federal government programs being considerably more redistributive than that of provincial and local governments. In general, the public sector provides large net benefits to families and individuals with incomes of less than $4,000, declining net benefits to families earning from $4,000 to $11,000 and levies small but increasing levels of net tax on families and individuals with incomes in excess of $11,000. This general conclusion is relatively insensitive to the precise assumptions made about the shifting of taxes and the distribution of expenditures on pure public goods. From simulation experiments, recent reforms of the federal income tax, unemployment insurance, old age security and family allowance systems were estimated to increase the amount of redistribution from the rich to the poo

ISSN:0034-6586    

DOI:10.1111/j.1475-4991.1975.tb00704.x

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1975

数据来源: WILEY

摘要:

In this article the authors anticipate some results of a study carried out in France and in Italy, in the framework of a wider research project aiming at analysing in some depth and at comparing the recent trends and patterns of total household consumption in some capitalist and socialist countries.1The accounting scheme used to arrive at a comprehensive definition of household consumption, inclusive of the “non‐market” divisible services produced by public administrations, and to identify the share of this new aggregate which is financed by collective resources, isoutlined in the first section. In the second section, the article shows the growing relative importance of publicly‐supported consumption, but it also shows that during the sixties, the overall cost of divisible public services and of social benefits provided in kind or in cash was, in both countries, almost entirely auto‐financed by the household sector, via social security contributions and taxes levied on that sector's income and consumption. In the third section, comparative analysis of the recent structural evolution of the “market” and the “non‐market” shares of total household consumption points out the similarities and dissimilarities between the patterns and forms of private and public spending in the two countries.The results of this analysis seem to support the thesis that unless a better integration of social policies with economic growth policies is achieved, it will not be possible to implement rational choices between the “market” and the “non‐market” ways of satisfying specific population needs. The authors' conclusion is that under present circumstances, public civil expenditures will continue to rise, both in France and in Italy, more rapidly than total national resources and it will become difficult to balance total receipts and total

ISSN:0034-6586    

DOI:10.1111/j.1475-4991.1975.tb00705.x

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1975

数据来源: WILEY

摘要:

This study examines the effects of public expenditure on production activity and private consumption activity. An input‐output model with consumption functions connected is used for evaluating the repercussions of public expenditure. Taking both production and consumption repercussions into account, it is concluded that in the year 1965 public expenditure generated 26 percent of domestic incomes and 18 percent of imports. Viewed in terms of the shares of different types of income generated, 72 percent of public expenditure goes to domestic income, and the remaining 28 percent to imports. Forty‐five percent of public expenditure returns directly as income to general government. The study also examines the effects of public expenditure by industry and over time (1959 to 19

ISSN:0034-6586    

DOI:10.1111/j.1475-4991.1975.tb00706.x

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1975

数据来源: WILEY

摘要:

Regional distribution of government expenditures is examined first in relation to other indicators of economic and social development. This shows both the magnitude of regional disparities and the degree of redistribution in the field of government expenditures brought about by the federal subsidy. The static aspect of regional disparities is analysed by decomposingper capitaincome into demographic, employment and productivity components. The time‐dimension of disparities is analysed by introducing the concept of time‐distance, which is a dynamic measure of disparity that is complementary rather than competitive with existing static measures.Institutional aspects are explored next, along with some implications of the present system of federal subsidy as an instrument towards regional equalization of the budgetary resources available to lower levels of government. A few alternative technical solutions to improve the present system are discussed and a set of macro‐variables is suggested as a framework within which the degree of equalization, which is basically a political decision, could be discussed in an explicit and systematic way. While the question of the appropriate degree of equalization remains a problem with many facets, it can be shown that government expenditures have been distributed much more equally than the corresponding levels of regional economic act

ISSN:0034-6586    

DOI:10.1111/j.1475-4991.1975.tb00707.x

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1975

数据来源: WILEY

摘要:

Until recently, there has been virtually no discussion among professional economists of the impact of government expenditures on the distribution of income.1Neoclassical economics has traditionally shown little interest in distributional issues. Little is said beyond the assumption that factors are paid their marginal products. Micro economics is said to take a “neutral” stance with regard to distributional issues. Static efficiency of allocation is attainable for any income distribution, and consequently, so the parable goes, no income distribution is superior on purely economic grounds to any other. Macro economics also purports to be neutral with respect to distribution. Government expenditures in Keynes' model appear as an undifferentiated blob called “G”. The only interest macro economics takes in distribution issues is concerned with the marginal effect of redistribution on the marginal propensity to consume out of income. Keynesian economics, therefore, is unable to say whether one form of government expenditure is superior to another so long as both accomplish macro objectives.When orthodox economists have approached the issue of the government's distributional impact, they have until recently focused solely on its use of taxes and transfer payments. Public finance has traditionally ignored the expenditure side of state activity since, after all, government activity was a necessary evil, benefiting no one. Gillespie's path‐breaking study in 1965 finally acknowledged the utility of government spending, but his analysis and those that have followed in the orthodox tradition have been hampered by a number of awkward premises.First, the orthodox studies of fiscal incidence implicitly accept the view of the government as a neutral arbiter rather than a protagonist of the dominant classes in society. Second, benefits of government services are assumed to be accurately measured by outlays. Thus, if we find that the government spends four times as much on highways as on police, it is assumed that the utility of highways is four times that of police even though one cannot even imagine the continuity of the status quo without the police while many responsible citizens argue that we should drastically curtail outlays on roads. Obviously, the utility of the police in terms of system maintenance exceeds that of the more expensive highway expenditures. Third, it is assumed that for each dollar spent by the government, only one person will benefit when, in fact, many disparate groups can benefit from the same expenditure. A dollar spent on education benefits the student as well as hislher employer. Fourth, Gillespie and his orthodox followers ignore any effect of the government on the pre‐tax, pre‐transfer distribution of income which they take as given. A hypothesis which we examine in this paper is that the government has an enormous influence over the shape of the pre‐tax, pre‐transfer income distribution.A more general criticism of previous studies of fiscal incidence is that they suffer from a poorly defined theory of the state. This assertion is most clzarly illustrated by the categorization in previous studies of a wide variety of public exp‐enditures as “public goods” (such as national military expenditures). The benefits of these “public goods” are allocated among various income groups in several ways, for example on the basis of wealth ownership (both productive and consumptive) or on a per capita basis. The method of allocation chosen has enormous consequences for one's estimate of overall fiscal incidence. According to Herriot and Miller, those with incomes over $50,000 either receive a net benefit of 4.5 percent of their total income from the government or lose 42.1 percent, depending upon the allocation formula chosen for public goods. Previous studies have taken an agnostic position with respect to the appropriateness of the several allocative assumptions. But this is merely simple empiricism without theoreticai foundation, and thus the formulation of specific hypotheses which employ scientific procedures is impossible. What is needed to provide an interpretation of the data is a well‐articulated theory of the state‐an area to which we turn our attention in

ISSN:0034-6586    

DOI:10.1111/j.1475-4991.1975.tb00708.x

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1975

数据来源: WILEY