A Note on Marx and the Trade Cycle John D. Wilson John D. Wilson Cambridge, Mass. Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar The Review of Economic Studies, Volume 5, Issue 2, February 1938, Pages 107–113, https://doi.org/10.2307/2967524 Published: 01 February 1938

It is often argued that the use of distortionary taxation lowers the optimal provision of public goods below its optimal level in a first-best economy, which contains no restrictions on lump-sum taxation. However, this issue is usually investigated using commodity-tax models that contain no lump-sum taxes. This paper examines a many-consumer economy in which the only tax instruments are commodity taxes and a poll tax (subsidies are negative taxes). The optimal level of public good provision in this economy typically exceeds the first-best level, at least for distributionally neutral public goods.

Trade in a Tiebout EconomyThis paper explores both the positive and normative aspects of interregional commodity trade in a "Tiebout e conomy, " i.e., a many-region economy with perfect labor mobility and endogenous government decision making. For a model with scale econom ies in public good consumption, it is shown that any equilibrium is a symmetric; regions containing the same types of individuals and production possibilities nevertheless differ in the traded goods which they produce and the public-good levels which they provide residents. In fact, each region specializes in producing only one of the traded private goods. The paper proves that an equilibrium is Pareto efficient.

This paper examines a system of governments that finance public expenditures with taxes on mobile capital. Unlike previous research on "tax competition," expli cit consideration is given to the general-equilibrium determination o f the prices at which goods are traded between regions. The analysis identifies inefficiencies in government behavior that are not apparen t in models in which the terms of trade are exogenously given. Capita l taxation is shown to create an inefficient distribution of public-g ood outputs across regions, accompanied by an inefficient pattern of trade. A model is presented in which the chosen levels of public-good outputs differ across regions containing identical residents and pro duction possibilities.

[This paper examines how corporate taxation of multijurisdictional firms using formula apportionment affects the incentives faced by individual firms and individual states. Under formula apportionment, a firm's tax payments to a given state depend on its total profits nationally (or internationally) times an average of the fractions of the firm's total property, payroll, and sales located in that state. This apportionment of a firm's total profits among states, based on three separate factors, in effect creates three separate taxes, each with complicated incentive effects. A large part of our analysis is concerned with the component of the tax tied to the allocation of property. Under this tax, price distortions differ in general among firms within the same state, creating incentives for firms producing in different states to merge their operations. State tax policies are also affected by this apportionment formula: states choose inefficiently low tax rates and are encouraged to shift to direct taxation of property. The component of the tax based on payroll creates many similar incentives. With this tax, however, the marger of firms producing different goods is discouraged.When a sales component to the tax is added, there are incentives for the cross-hauling of output, with production in low tax rates states sold in high tax rate states, and conversely. None of the above distortions are created when the corporate tax uses separate accounting to divide a firm's profits among states. The final section presents an alternative apportionment formula which retains the administrative advantages of existing law, yet creates the same incentives as separate accounting as long as there are no economic profits.]