Short-run and Long-run Effects of Capital Taxation on Innovation and Economic Growth

Chen, Ping-ho and Chu, Angus C. and Chu, Hsun and Lai, Ching-Chong (2016): Short-run and Long-run Effects of Capital Taxation on Innovation and Economic Growth.

Abstract

In this note, we examine the effects of capital taxation on innovation and economic growth. We find that capital taxation has drastically different effects in the short run and in the long run. An increase in the capital income tax rate has both a consumption effect and a tax-shifting effect on the equilibrium growth rates of technology and output. In the long run, the tax-shifting effect dominates the consumption effect yielding an overall positive effect of capital taxation on steady-state economic growth. However, in the short run, the consumption effect becomes the dominant force causing an initial negative effect of capital taxation on the equilibrium growth rates. These contrasting effects of capital taxation at different time horizons may provide a plausible explanation for the mixed evidence in the empirical literature on capital taxation and economic growth.

• Item Type: MPRA Paper
• Language: English
• Keywords: Capital taxation; economic growth; R&D; transition dynamics
• Subjects: H - Public Economics > H2 - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue; O - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth > O3 - Innovation ; Research and Development ; Technological Change ; Intellectual Property Rights; O - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth > O4 - Economic Growth and Aggregate Productivity

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