The Size of Government, Capital Accumulation, and the Tax Base

Abstract

A central tax policy concern is the role of particular tax bases in either stimulating or discouraging capital accumulation. While the consumption tax has been proposed as superior to the income tax in terms of its treatment of saving, the literature has shown that whether a consumption or income-based tax system is associated with greater capital accumulation is theoretically indeterminate. This article incorporates the role of public accumulation and changing government activities into its analysis of capital accumulation, which enables this ambiguity to be resolved. An examination of U.S. data for the 1929–1978 period suggests that had inflation adjustment of the income tax been adopted it would, contrary to the implication of several tax reform proposals, have resulted in greater accumulation than the implementation of a consumption tax.