Tax Policy and the Investment Decision
探讨美国税收激励如何影响投资支出，分析通胀对有效税率的作用，以及税收负担差异对资本形成和经济增长的影响，适合关注税收政策与宏观经济关系的读者。
The poor performance of U.S. productivity in recent years has renewed interest in the relationship between tax incentives, capital formation, and economic growth. Particular attention has been given to the impact of inflation on effective tax rates, and to the possibility that an inflation-induced increase in tax burdens contributed to the productivity slowdown through a reduction in the rate of capital formation. Attention has also focused on the role of relative tax burdens in explaining international differences in savings rates and economic growth, and on the extent to which differences in relative tax treatment of various types of capital results in an inefficient allocation of resources. These issues are the subject matter of the emerging doctrine of economics, which may be loosely defined as the application of microeconomic principles to macroeconomic problems. While supply-side economics is concerned with the response of all inputs to a change in tax policy, I shall restrict attention to the response of investment spending to changes in business tax incentives. I shall first consider how business tax incentives in the U.S. Internal Revenue Tax Code have changed over time, and then provide an overview of the recently developed cost of capital literature on marginal effective tax rates. I will then turn to the question of how these tax incentives have influenced investment behavior. A concluding section offers comments on the relative importance of supply-side effects on economic growth. I. Marginal Effective Corporate Tax Rates