Identifying Laffer Bounds: A Sufficient‐Statistics Approach with an Application to Germany
提出了一个充分统计量检验，用于判断非线性税收转移系统是否达到帕累托效率，若未达到则存在自融资减税空间，并应用于德国系统发现转移退出区域边际税率结构可能无效。
Abstract We derive a simple sufficient‐statistics test for whether a nonlinear tax‐transfer system is second‐best Pareto efficient. If it is not, then it is beyond the top of the Laffer curve and there exists a tax cut that is self‐financing. The test depends on the income distribution, extensive and intensive labor supply elasticities, and income effect parameters. A tax‐transfer system is likely to be inefficient if marginal tax rates are quickly falling in income. We apply this test to the German tax‐transfer system, and we find that the structure of effective marginal tax rates is likely to be inefficient in the region where transfers are phased out.