Marginal welfare costs of taxation with human and physical capital.
Allgood, Sam ; Snow, Arthur
I. INTRODUCTION
Marginal welfare cost of taxation is the amount by which the social
cost of an additional tax dollar differs from 1 because of distortionary
taxation. Browning and Johnson (1984), Stuart (1984), Browning (1987),
Ballard (1988), and Allgood and Snow (1998) use static models of the
U.S. economy, in which labor supplies adjust but the stocks of human and
physical capital are fixed, to calculate estimates of this welfare cost
relevant to cost-benefit analysis. The studies by Lucas (1990) and
Perroni (1995) incorporate human and physical capital into calculations
of excess burden for the purpose of comparing alternative tax systems
but do not address the welfare costs of marginal tax and spending
reforms. Ballard et al. (1985) and Judd (1987) provide estimates of
welfare cost using models that allow the stock of physical capital to
change in response to marginal reforms, but the stock of human capital
is exogenous in these studies. However, Judd (2001) argues that there is
ample evidence indicating that human capital investment decisions have a
significant effect on the cost of altering the tax system, which
suggests that these decisions could also have an important influence on
marginal welfare cost.
In this article we present estimates of welfare costs for marginal
reforms to government tax and spending policies when labor supply,
saving, and education decisions are all endogenous. We focus our
analysis on marginal reforms because as Skinner and Slemrod (1985)
observe, most policy reforms enacted do not involve replacing one tax or
spending system with another, but instead typically entail marginal
adjustments in tax laws and government appropriations. Using a perfect
foresight, overlapping generations model with a three-period life cycle,
we derive analytical expressions for the changes in labor supply,
saving, and education and use them to calculate marginal welfare cost.
As shown by Auerbach et al. (1983) in overlapping generations models,
steady-state welfare comparisons of alternative tax policies are biased
unless households are compensated for intergenerational redistribution along the transition path. To arrive at our steady-state estimates of
welfare costs, we adapt the compensation method introduced by Gravelle
(1991) for analyzing fundamental tax reforms to the context of
incremental tax and spending reforms.
In a static, one-consumer model, Triest (1990) has shown that
marginal welfare cost (MWC) is positive solely because of tax
"leakage," the decline in tax revenue caused by reductions in
the tax base. We extend this insight to an intertemporal context that
incorporates tax leakage arising from changes in both human and physical
capital investment. We evaluate three sets of reforms: first, a
revenue-neutral reduction in the tax on capital income funded by a
higher tax on labor income; second, spending on a public good financed
by either a higher tax on labor or interest income; third, a per capita lump-sum transfer, or demogrant, also funded by either a higher tax on
labor or interest income. We find that marginal welfare costs are
uniformly lower in the dynamic model, where investment decisions are
endogenous, than in the static model, where investment decisions are
fixed, and that the majority of the difference between the dynamic and
static estimates is attributable to human capital decisions. The
principal reason is that a reallocation of time between labor hours and
human capital investment has opposing and potentially offsetting effects
on (effective) labor supply. As a result, labor supply responds less
elastically in the dynamic model, and changes in labor supply are the
main source of tax leakage, because wage taxation is the main source of
tax revenue. We also find that shifting marginal financing from capital
to labor results in a lower welfare cost, the reason being that such a
change encourages saving, which increases wage rates and stimulates
labor supply, leading to a reduction in marginal welfare costs.
Our calculations are based on parameter values that are broadly
representative of the U.S. economy. Judd (2001) suggests that little is
known about welfare cost of taxation because estimates for key
parameters can be found over a wide range of values. Accordingly, we
calculate estimates of MWC using two sets of parameter values, one with
higher tax rates and labor supply elasticities than the other set. Our
numerical results are largely consistent with the theoretical literature
on optimal taxation and the applied literature that reports estimates of
welfare gains and losses when one tax system replaces another. For
example, our finding that a marginal shift from interest to wage
taxation reduces welfare cost is consistent with the conclusion reached
by Judd (1985), who argues that the optimal tax on physical capital is
0, and with the results obtained by Ballard et al. (1985) and Judd
(1987) using models with exogenous human capital. Our results are also
consistent with the conclusion reached by Auerbach et al. (1983) and
Gravelle (1991) in the context of fundamental reforms, that ignoring
redistributional effects that arise in dynamic models of tax reform can
substantially bias upward estimates of welfare cost.
As a further sensitivity analysis, we calculate estimates of MWC
holding human capital investment fixed using both sets of parameter
values along with a third set in which the higher tax rates are paired
with higher wage and income elasticities of labor supply. In each case,
the values obtained for MWC are higher when households are not allowed
to adjust human capital investments than when they are free to adjust
both saving and education decisions. Not surprisingly, higher wage
elasticities result in higher estimates of MWC.
In the next section we set out a dynamic model of welfare cost
estimation that implements a compensation mechanism to isolate efficiency from redistributional effects. In section III, we present
estimates of welfare costs for the U.S. economy and explore the
importance of the human capital decision. Conclusions are presented in
the final section.
II. MEASUREMENT OF WELFARE COST
We study welfare cost in a perfect foresight, overlapping
generations model with three-period life cycles. Young households may
invest in human capital, whereas young and middle-aged households supply
labor and invest in physical capital. Old households are retired. We
abstract from government debt and private bequests to focus on
life-cycle motivations for investment in human and physical capital.
After defining welfare cost in this context, we provide calculations of
steady-state welfare costs for alternative policy reforms.
Welfare Cost of Taxation and Public Spending
To define welfare cost, we adopt the cost-benefit criterion and add
together the benefits and costs accruing to each household, using the
equivalent variation money-metric measures of utility change. In a
comparison of steady states, this measure of the change in social
welfare is proportional to the discounted lifetime net benefits of all
living and future generations. After isolating social costs from social
benefits, welfare cost is identified by subtracting from social costs
the increase in tax revenue. When the change in social welfare is
evaluated in this manner and there are no utility interdependencies,
lump-sum redistributions of income have no social value, except insofar as they influence welfare cost. In the absence of distortionary
taxation, welfare cost equals 0 and, along a golden rule path, the model
yields the Samuelson rule for efficiency in the supply of a public good.
When the economy is not on a golden rule path, changes in investment
behavior have welfare effects that can be allocated either to social
benefits or to social costs. Our model also incorporates an externality involving human capital investment, whereby the stock of human capital
directly affects the productivity of investment in education. We
allocate the welfare effects of changes in this externality to social
costs, along with any golden rule effects.
Households consume a numeraire good [x.sub.t] and leisure time
[l.sub.t] in each period t of the life cycle. A household may also
devote time to education [e.sub.t] in period 1 of the life cycle (so
[e.sub.t] = 0 for t = 2, 3). Once a household has decided how much
education to obtain and how to allocate income over the life cycle, the
household maximizes period t utility [u.sub.t]([x.su.t], [l.sub.t], z)
by choosing [x.sub.t] and [l.sub.t] given the quantity z of a public
good supplied exclusively by government, and given the budget constraint
(1) [x.sub.t] + [w.sub.t][[delta].sub.t][l.sub.t] = [I.sub.t],
where[w.sub.t]= (1 - [m.sub.t])W is the after-tax wage
rate,[m.sub.t] is the marginal tax rate, W is the marginal product of
effective labor hours, and [[delta].sub.t] is the household's labor
productivity factor. Let [V.sup.t]([w.sub.t][[delta].sub.t], Z,
[I.sub.t]) denote the resulting indirect utility function for the
household in period t. The income [I.sub.t] allocated by the household
to period t is determined by lifetime decisions concerning investment in
human and physical capital. Specifically,
(2) [I.sub.t] [equivalent to] [w.sub.t][[delta].sub.t] (T -
[e.sub.t]) + [A.sub.t] + ([K.sub.t]/p) - [K.sub.t+1],
where T is the time endowment, [A.sub.t] is a governmental lump-sum
transfer, [K.sub.t] is the amount of capital owned by the household in
period t, and p is the discount factor, so that 1/p [equivalent to] [1 +
(1 - [tau])r] is the gross after-tax return to capital, given the tax
rate [tau] and the interest rate r. [K.sub.t+1] is the amount the
household saves in period t. W and r equal the marginal products of
labor and capital, respectively, and the before-tax factor prices are
therefore endogenous, varying with changes in aggregate factor supplies.
(1) Finally, government collects
(3) [R.sub.t] [equivalent to] [m.sub.t]W[[delta].sub.t][h.sub.t] +
[tau]r[K.sub.t]
in tax revenue, where
(4) [h.sub.t] [equivalent to] T - [e.sub.t] - [l.sub.t]
is the household's supply of labor hours. (2)
Education undertaken in the first period increases productivity in
the second period according to the relation
(5) [[delta].sub.2] = [[delta].sub.1] + [[bar.[delta]].sub.2]
f([[delta].sub.1][e.sub.1])
for an increasing concave function f, with f(0) = 0. Here we
incorporate an education externality, inasmuch as the average
productivity of households currently in middle age, denoted by
[[bar.[delta]].sub.2], is assumed to have a direct affect on the
addition to human capital realized by young households. Since households
are retired during the third period of the life cycle, [[delta].sub.3]
equals 0.
A household's education and saving decisions maximize
discounted lifetime utility,
(6) [V.sup.1]([w.sub.1][[delta].sub.1], z [I.sub.1] +
[sigma][V.sup.2]([w.sub.2][[delta].sub.2], z, [I.sub.2]) +
[[sigma].sup.2][V.sup.3](0, z, [I.sub.3])
subject to the lifetime budget constraint
(7) [I.sub.1] + p[I.sub.2] + [p.sup.2][I.sub.3] +
[w.sub.1][[delta].sub.1] [e.sub.1] - p[w.sub.2][[bar.[delta]].sub.2] f
([[delta].sub.1][e.sub.1])T = [I.sup.y],
where [sigma] is the subjective discount factor, and
(8) [I.sup.y] = [w.sub.y][[delta].sub.1]T + [A.sub.1] +
p([w.sub.2][[delta].sub.1]T + [A.sub.2]) + [p.sup.2][A.sub.3]
is a young household's lifetime income consisting of the
current and discounted future value of the time endowment plus the
current and discounted lump-sum transfers [A.sub.t]. (3)
We assume that an incremental policy reform leads to a small change
in the steady state so that we can identify net benefits with marginal
changes in utility, in keeping with previous studies of welfare cost.
For a household in period t of the life cycle, the net benefit
[NB.sub.t] [equivalent to] d[V.sup.t]/[V.sup.t.sub.I] can be evaluated
by using Roy's identity to obtain
(9) [NB.sub.t] = [MRS.sub.t]dz
-[l.sub.t]d([w.sub.t][[delta].sub.t]) + d[I.sub.t] =[[MRS.sub.t]dz +
d[A.sub.t]] - d[A.sub.t] + [l.sub.t]d([w.sub.t][[delta].sub.t]) -
d[I.sub.t]],
where [V.sup.t.sub.I] denotes the household's marginal utility of income, and [MRS.sub.t] [equivalent to]
[V.sup.t.sub.z]/[V.sup.t.sub.I] is the marginal benefit of an increase
in consumption of the public good. (4) The second line follows by adding
and subtracting d[A.sub.t] to isolate marginal benefit within the first
set of brackets and marginal cost within the second set.
By combining the differential changes d[I.sub.t] And d[R.sub.t]
implied by equations (2) and (3), the expression for marginal cost can
be rewritten in terms of the change in tax revenue and then aggregated
to obtain marginal social cost per household (MSC). The resulting
expression can be decomposed into four distinct elements, (5)
(10) MSC [equivalent to] - G - E + dR + WC.
The first element consists of golden rule effects that arise in the
overlapping generations context,
(11) G [equivalent to] [1/p -(1 + n)] x {d[K.sub.3] + (1 +
n)[d[K.sub.2] + [w.sub.1][[delta].sub.1]d[e.sub.1]}'
where n is the exogenous population growth rate. These effects
vanish when the economy is on a golden rule path and 1/p= 1 + n. If the
economy is not on a golden rule path and (1 + n) < 1/p because the
growth rate n is less than the after tax rate of return (1 - [tau])r,
then equation (11) shows that any reform that encourages capital
investment has a positive golden rule effect that lowers the
reform's marginal social cost. The second element of MSC,
(12) E [equivalent to] (1 + n)
[w.sub.1]f([[delta].sub.1][e.sub.1])/pf'
([[delta].sub.1][e.sub.1])](d[[bar.[delta]].sub.2])/
[[bar.[delta]].sub.2],
is the marginal externality cost borne when the average stock of
human capital held by middle-aged households declines (f' denotes
the first derivative). Thus, reforms that encourage human capital
investment have positive human capital externality effects that lower
marginal social cost.
The remaining elements of MSC are associated with changes in
taxation. The first of these is the change in aggregate tax revenue per
household, dR, and the second is the welfare cost which, for a household
in period t of the life cycle, amounts to
(13) [WC.sub.t] [equivalent to] -[m.sub.t]Wd([[delta].sub.t]
[h.sub.t]) - [tau]rd[K.sub.t],
where the changes in labor supply and investments in human and
physical capital are calculated for the steady state. Aggregating
equation (13) across households, we obtain WC. As in Triest's
analysis, we find that welfare cost is the loss in tax revenue that must
be made up when the tax bases decline in response to the policy reform.
The education externality influences welfare cost through its effect on
the steady-state stock of human capital, since equation (5) implies
(14) d[[delta].sub.2] =
[[bar.[delta]].sub.2]f'([[delta].sub.1]d[e.sub.1])
[[delta].sub.1]d[e.sub.1] + f([[delta].sub.1][e.sub.1])
d[[bar.[delta]].sub.2].
Thus a reduction in the human capital stock of middle aged
households (d[[bar.[delta]].sub.2] < 0) contributes to welfare cost
through a reduction in their descendants' effective labor supplies
([h.sub.2]d[[delta].sub.2]).
The change in social welfare is determined by adding net benefits
across households to obtain (6)
(15) NB/dR = [beta]([SIGMA][MRS.sub.t]/c) + (1 - [beta]) + [(G +
E)/dR] - (1 + MWC)
after dividing by dR. The parameter [beta] represents the
proportion of the increase in tax revenue spent on the public good, the
remainder being allocated to equal per capita transfer payments, c is
the marginal cost of the public good, [SIGMA][MRS.sub.t] denotes the sum
of each household's willingness to pay for the public good, (1 +
MWC) is the marginal cost of public funds, and
(16) MWC [equivalent to] WC/dR
denotes marginal welfare cost. In the absence of distortionary
taxation, welfare cost equals 0 and the marginal cost of a tax dollar is
equal to 1. However, in the presence of distortionary taxation, welfare
cost is equal to the tax leakage, which is positive when tax bases
decline in response to the policy reform, and the marginal cost of a tax
dollar then exceeds 1 by the marginal welfare cost, MWC.
Equations (11), (12), and (13) suggest that welfare costs arising
from changes in effective labor supply will be the major contributor to
marginal social cost. The golden rule effects in equation (11) are
multiplied by [1/p - (1 + n)] < 1, and this dampens the relative
contribution of these changes to MSC. The marginal externality cost in
equation (12) depends on the percentage change in the average stock of
human capital, d[[bar.[delta]].sub.2]/[[bar.[delta]].sub.2]. Although
the absolute change in [[bar.[delta]].sub.2] may be large, the
percentage change may not be, in which case the contribution of E to MSC
is small. For welfare cost, given in equation (13), we note that [tau]r
is typically quite small so that changes in the capital stock will tend
to have a small impact on welfare cost. However, the change in hours
worked is multiplied by [m.sub.t]W[[delta].sub.t] and the change in
labor productivity is multiplied by [m.sub.t]W[h.sub.t]. These effects
will tend to be large relative to the others. Because welfare cost is
tax leakage, it is not surprising that the primary source of welfare
cost derives from the primary source of tax revenue. However, this does
not mean that changes in the capital stock are unimportant. As we show,
changes in saving decisions have a substantial effect on the response of
labor supply to a given reform.
To evaluate the change in steady-state tax revenue and the
associated welfare cost of a specified policy reform, changes in labor
supply and investments in physical and human capital must be determined
for each generation. Accordingly, we introduce our method of
compensating households to control for transitional effects that would
otherwise compromise estimates of both the change in tax revenue and
welfare cost.
Compensated Income Changes for Incremental Policy Reforms
To isolate efficiency consequences from redistribution associated
with transitional effects, we compensate each household for changes in
taxation and factor prices before evaluating optimal adjustments in
labor supply and investment decisions. Because capital decisions made
earlier in the life cycle cannot be changed, those households retired
when the policy change is implemented do not contribute to welfare cost,
but over the transition path, households living in earlier periods of
the life cycle make capital decisions that do ultimately contribute to
welfare cost. For this reason our compensation for a given household has
two parts. The first is household-specific and returns to a household
the "gross" change in its current tax payment, that is, the
change that would occur if capital and time allocations were perfectly
inelastic, plus any reduction in the current value of its capital and
labor caused by changes in before-tax factor prices. The second part of
the compensation payment is the same for each household and subtracts
the per-household tax leakage plus the per household change in tax
revenue. Because the change in tax revenue includes the tax leakage, the
second part of the compensation paid to households is simply the per
household change in tax revenue that would occur if savings and time
allocations were supplied inelastically. Thus, each household's
compensation depends only on changes that are exogenous to it. In the
aggregate, these compensation payments net out to 0.
By way of illustration, consider a reform that shifts the tax
burden from wages toward lump-sum taxation, which has a positive social
value of--WC. Under our approach to compensation, all generations share
in the welfare gain, with the young gaining the most and the old gaining
the least. Young and middle-aged households also enjoy the reduced cost
of their leisure time, whereas the young bear the cost of reduced
compensation for the tax on their return to human capital investment.
(7)
As emphasized by Gravelle (1991), a compensation scheme must not
only control for transitional redistribution but also specify the
distribution of efficiency gains or losses among cohorts. Alternative
schemes would have different distributional consequences, whether
compensation is effected along a transition path, as in the procedure
followed by Auerbach et al. (1983) to analyze the efficiency of
fundamental tax reforms, or only for the steady state, as in the
procedure developed by Gravelle for fundamental tax reforms and adapted
here to analyze incremental tax and spending reforms. As a result, there
is no unique measure of welfare cost. Our method is recommended by being
computationally straightforward and, as illustrated by the preceding
example, by allocating gains (and losses) in a pattern consistent with
the life cycle.
Calculation of Compensated Changes in Steady State
Young and middle-aged households adjust their labor supply and
investment decisions by reallocating income over their remaining
lifetimes in response to a specified policy reform along with the
compensated income changes just discussed. We assess the changes in
steady-state values by determining the optimal responses of young
households to a specified policy reform that is accompanied by the
compensated change in lifetime income. The first-order necessary
conditions for the optimal allocation of income over the life cycle and
allocation of time to education given by the maximization of equation
(6) yield comparative statics equations for [I.sub.1], [I.sub.2],
[I.sub.3], and el that can be evaluated using the compensated change in
lifetime income along with specified changes in tax rates and in public
spending on transfers and on the supply of the public good.
Population Heterogeneity
Thus far, age is the only source of heterogeneity in the
population. In our calculations, we introduce heterogeneity within each
generation in three dimensions. We allow the endowment of human capital
([[delta].sub.1]) and the number of persons per household to vary within
each generation, and we admit a graduated tax structure for wage income
so that wage tax rates may differ among households who are in the same
period of the life cycle. Ten lifetime profiles are constructed using
the 1991 Panel Study of Income Dynamics to incorporate these sources of
heterogeneity in a fashion that mirrors the U.S. economy. (8) Because we
consider only incremental policy reforms, we assume that no household
changes its lifetime tax bracket profile. Hence, we can analyze the
effects of incremental changes in the progressivity of the rate
structure by adjusting both the tax brackets and the marginal rates
applying within each bracket.
III. ESTIMATES OF WELFARE COST
As in the static, one-consumer model reviewed by Snow and Warren
(1996), neither the sign nor the magnitude of MWC can be determined
without specifying several behavioral and technological elasticities.
These values are taken from previous research intended to be
representative of the U.S. economy. Consistent with Lucas (1990) and
Judd (1987), the tax on capital income is set at 40% ([tau] = 0.4). As
in Engen et al. (1997) and Altig et al. (2001), the population growth
rate is set to 3% (n = 0.03), and the before-tax rate of return to
capital at 8% (r = 0.08). We note that our estimates are not sensitive
to small variations in the values chosen for these parameters.
There is still substantial debate over the correct choice of tax
parameters and labor supply elasticities for the U.S. economy. In
studies of marginal changes to the Earned Income Tax Credit, Browning
(1995) assumes that effective marginal tax rates on wage income are
high, some exceeding 60%, while Triest (1994) uses marginal tax rates
less than 40%. To illustrate the effects of parameter choice, we adopt
the tax rates and elasticities first employed by Browning and Johnson
(1984) and subsequently by Allgood and Snow (1998) and Allgood (2003).
These parameter values are labeled Parameter set A in Table 1. For
comparative purposes, we also adopt the lower values employed by Triest
(1994). These parameters are labeled Parameter set B in Table 1.
The magnitude of the intertemporal elasticity of substitution,
which governs the willingness to transfer income across time, plays a
prominent role in previous studies, and is important here as well. Even
though our analysis is confined to incremental reforms and our approach
does not require knowledge of a transition path, dynamic estimates of
marginal welfare cost can be quite sensitive to the value of the
intertemporal elasticity of substitution, especially in the case of
capital taxation. We report estimates based on a value of one-half for
this elasticity, which is representative of the literature. (9) As in
previous studies, the estimated values fall as this elasticity falls,
and we note the values obtained when the elasticity is one quarter and
one eighth.
Differential Incidence: Revenue-Neutral Reform
Table 2 presents estimates of the positive and normative effects of
a differential incidence reform that shifts taxation from capital toward
labor income (dm = 0.0001, d[tau] < 0) while collecting the same
amount of revenue in total. The intuitive predictions of a decline in
human capital investment accompanied by an increase in savings are
confirmed for both parameter sets. The conclusion that welfare is
enhanced by shifting the tax burden away from physical capital toward
labor income is consistent with the results reported by Chamley (1981),
Judd (1985), and Coleman (2000). Their studies of an infinitely lived
representative consumer reveal that in the absence of capital market
imperfections, the optimal tax rate on capital income is 0. Although our
result applies only for a marginal reform, the implication is that
taxing capital income is inconsistent with efficiency.
The magnitudes of the positive and normative effects of this reform
are quite sensitive to the choice of tax and labor supply parameters.
The estimated welfare gain using parameter set A is about 4.5 times
larger than the gain estimated with set B, and the increase in labor
supply is 10 times larger, whereas the increase in the capital stock is
only about 30% larger.
A closer inspection of Table 2 and formula (13) for welfare cost
reveals that the welfare gain is largely derived from the fact that the
reform encourages labor supply. The tax gained from increased saving
([tau]rdK) is very small because the product of the tax and interest
rates is small (0.2 x 0.08 = 0.016). For this reason, changes in saving
have a relatively small direct effect on welfare cost estimates.
However, because the reform encourages investment in physical capital,
the after-tax wage rate increases, which in turn leads to an increase in
labor supply to take advantage of the higher wage rate and the enhanced
incentive to save out of wage income.
Balanced Budget Analysis: Exhaustive Spending Reform
Table 3 reports our estimates of MWC for fiscal reforms in which
the increase in tax revenue finances greater spending on a public good
under the assumption of ordinary independence. (10) MWC is lower for
increased taxation of labor rather than capital income. Our estimates of
MWC for increased labor and capital income taxation are 7.00 cents and
12.84 cents per dollar of tax revenue, respectively, using parameter set
A, and are reduced by about half using the smaller parameter values in
set B. (11) These estimates contrast sharply with those derived by
Ballard et al., who obtained estimates of 23.4 cents for labor taxes and
21.7 cents for capital taxes from a computable general equilibrium model. Their model, however, ignores human capital investment decisions
and treats capital accumulation in an ad hoc fashion by including
savings as an argument in utility. A more sophisticated accounting for
intertemporal margins of choice, including human capital investment, and
lower labor-supply elasticities are responsible for the much lower
estimates of welfare costs that we obtain. (12)
Balanced Budget Analysis: Incremental Demogrant Reform
The estimates of MWC for a demogrant reform, in which increased tax
revenue is redistributed as an equal per capita lump-sum transfer, are
reported in Table 4. They are uniformly higher than those for exhaustive
spending because the spending effect of the demogrant transfer reduces
labor supply, and we assumed that an increase in public good supply has
no spending effects. It is also the case that raising the additional
revenue through a higher tax on interest rather than wage income results
in a higher estimate for MWC.
Judd (1987), analyzing an incremental demogrant in a perfect
foresight model with an infinitely lived consumer, obtains an estimate
of 4 cents for MWC in the case of increased wage taxation, and 36 cents
in the case of increased capital taxation, compared with our estimates
of 14.70 cents and 20.97 cents, respectively. (13) When we use the
smaller parameter values in set B, the estimates are 5.50 for increased
labor taxation and 6.53 for an increase in the tax on interest income.
Thus, like Judd, we find that welfare cost is higher for capital rather
than labor taxes, but our results suggest that life cycle and human
capital decisions, which are absent from Judd's model, along with
the absence from our model of a bequest motive for capital accumulation,
which is present in Judd's model, have a substantial mitigating effect on the estimated welfare costs of demogrant reforms financed by
capital taxation. We return to this issue in the next section.
Our predictions concerning human capital are consistent with the
conclusion reached by Lin (1998) who, in analyzing an overlapping
generations model, found that when an increase in wage taxation reduces
the interest rate, time spent on human capital investment increases. Yet
this stands in contrast to arguments often given in support of lower tax
rates. Becker et al. (2003) argue in a Wall Street Journal editorial
that reducing tax rates on labor income will encourage investment in
human capital by increasing its rate of return. Yet as Judd (2001)
points out, reducing tax rates on labor income also increases the cost
of human capital investment, so that the net effect is theoretically
ambiguous. Lucas (1990) reports, for example, that the costs and
benefits of schooling are equally affected for the reforms he considers,
and endogenous growth in human capital has little effect on his results.
For both sets of parameters used here, we find that in most cases human
capital investment increases in response to an increase in wage
taxation.
The results in Table 4 illustrate the role of the marginal tax
rate. With parameter set B, an incremental demogrant funded by a higher
tax on wage income reduces investment in human capital, but with
parameter set A the opposite occurs. We also calculated MWC for this
reform using the labor supply elasticities and average tax rates of set
A, with the marginal tax rates from set B. Switching to the lower
marginal tax rates of set B causes the change in human capital
investment to switch from positive (0.8640) to negative (-0.2120). When
we use the labor supply elasticities and average tax rates from
parameter set B with the marginal tax rates from set A, the change in
human capital investment again changes sign, this time from negative
(-0.3253) to positive (0.6955). Thus we find that increased wage
taxation encourages human capital investment when marginal cost and
benefit are initially low, but has the opposite effect when they are
initially high.
The Importance of Compensation
Gravelle (1991) reports that with labor supply endogenous, the
switch from an income to a wage tax lowers welfare by 1.10% using an
uncompensated procedure but raises welfare by 0.15% using a compensated
procedure. Our estimates reveal a similar pattern. The marginal welfare
costs of the exhaustive spending reform and the demogrant are both lower
when the compensation method is used. With parameter set A, MWC for the
exhaustive spending reform is 21.36 cents for an increase in wage taxes
without the compensation scheme. In general, estimates of MWC obtained
without using the compensation scheme are about twice those obtained
when compensation is implemented. For the revenue-neutral reform,
estimates of welfare cost fit the same pattern but are not so strongly
affected by the compensation method. Welfare cost without compensation
is -0.1113 compared with -0.1088 with compensation.
The Role of Human Capital Investment
Our discussion thus far suggests only a limited role for human
capital decisions in determining the welfare cost of marginal reforms.
To reveal the importance of human capital investment, we recalculate MWC
for balanced budget reforms financed by increased wage taxation while
artificially holding the level of human and physical capital investment
constant. The results are reported in Table 5 in the column labeled
Static Model. Next, we estimate the dynamic model allowing physical
capital investments (and labor supply) to change but holding investment
in human capital constant. These results are reported in the second
column of entries in Table 5 labeled Exogenous Education.
For exhaustive spending and parameter set A, the static value of 16
cents per dollar for MWC is in the range of estimates obtained by
Browning (1987) (23.0 cents) and Ballard (10.3 cents). We observe that
the static estimate of MWC overstates the dynamic estimate by 9 cents,
or more than 100%, for our base case. However, when Triest's
smaller parameter values are used, MWC for the static model is only 5.50
cents and falls to 4.25 cents for the dynamic model. The direction of
the bias is the same, but its relative magnitude is much smaller. The
same pattern emerges for the demogrant reform. Table 5 also reports
estimates of MWC using parameter set A after doubling the uncompensated
wage elasticities for the second through fifth quintiles and increasing
all of the income elasticities by 50%, resulting in compensated
elasticities ranging from 0.38 to 0.66. (14) The resulting parameters
(set A') yield the highest values of MWC, but these show the same
pattern, falling from 0.2946 in the static model to 0.158 in the dynamic
model.
Our finding that MWC is uniformly smaller in the dynamic model is
explained by three factors. The first recognizes that a household's
future consumption levels are fixed in the static model, where
investments cannot be adjusted, but are endogenous in the dynamic model,
where investments can be freely altered. Hence, the dynamic response of
labor supply to an increase in the wage rate is equal to the static
response plus the response to increases in future consumption levels
multiplied by the response of these consumption levels to an increase in
the tax rate, as in equation (30) of Neary and Roberts (1980). As long
as leisure and future consumption levels are normal, these products are
positive. (15) As a consequence, the decline in labor is smaller when
saving decisions are endogenous than in the static model, where saving
decisions are fixed. The second factor has already been noted, namely
that in the dynamic model, welfare cost is predominantly the tax leakage
associated with reductions in labor supply, which is the only cause of
welfare cost in the static model. Because labor supply falls by less
when savings are endogenous, welfare cost is correspondingly smaller as
reflected in the estimates in the second column of Table 5.
The third factor concerns human capital investment. The estimates
reported in Table 5 reveal that the majority of the decline in moving
from the static to the dynamic model is attributable to human capital
decisions. This finding is consistent with the conclusion reached by
Judd (2001), that making human capital endogenous increases the welfare
gain of replacing income taxation with a tax on consumption. In our
balanced budget analysis, the increased investment in human capital (see
Table 3) would allow labor hours to decline while maintaining effective
labor supply. In our experiments, households choose to reduce labor
hours further, so that effective labor supply declines. However, the
resulting tax leakage is smaller than it would be if households could
not substitute between labor hours and human capital investment.
Golden Rule and Human Capital Externality Effects
In the overlapping generations framework, a marginal reform that
moves the economy toward its golden rule path improves welfare, as
discussed by Nerlove et al. (1993), an effect that is not present in
static models or in dynamic models with infinitely lived consumers. Our
specifications for the population growth rate (n = 0.03), interest rate
(r = 0.08), and capital tax rate ([tau] = 0.4), place the economy off
its golden rule path in such a way that reforms leading to greater
investment in human and physical capital have a positive golden rule
effect and reduce marginal social costs. Our model also incorporates a
human capital externality whereby an increase in the aggregate stock of
human capital raises the marginal productivity of education activities
and reduces marginal social costs. In theory, these two welfare effects
may be large. For the reforms and parameters considered here, however,
the two effects are very small relative to the welfare cost. (16)
IV. CONCLUSIONS
Building on the insights of Auerbach et al. (1983) and Gravelle
(1991) concerning the need to control for redistribution in estimating
the efficiency effects of fundamental tax reforms in a dynamic context,
we develop and implement an overlapping generations model for estimating
welfare costs of marginal policy reforms for both differential incidence
and balanced budget analyses. All of our estimates of marginal welfare
costs are lower when households are compensated for transitional
redistribution, confirming the potential for upward bias in estimates of
steady-state welfare gains when this redistribution is ignored.
We find that estimates of marginal welfare costs are uniformly
lower in the dynamic model where households can adjust their human and
physical capital investments than in the static model where these
investments are fixed. Part of the explanation for this finding is that
welfare cost is predominantly the tax leakage caused by reduced labor
supply. With an increase in wage taxation, there is a smaller decline in
labor supply when saving is endogenous, because the static response is
dampened by the response to changes in saving and future consumption.
Additionally, with human capital investment endogenous, a reallocation
of time between education and labor hours has opposing effects on
effective labor supply, and as a consequence the negative effect of a
tax increase on labor supply is mitigated by the opportunity to adjust
human capital. Indeed, we find that the majority of the upward bias in
static estimates of MWC is attributable to their failure to account for
the endogeneity of human rather than physical capital investment.
Estimates of MWC are higher when the spending reform is financed by
an increase in the tax on interest income rather than wage income. This
result is a reflection of our finding that a marginal shift of the tax
burden from capital to labor is welfare enhancing. This reform increases
the after-tax return to saving, thereby encouraging physical capital
investment, which in turn increases the after-tax wage rate. As a
result, labor supply increases to take advantage of the higher wage rate
and the enhanced incentive to save out of wage income. Therefore,
shifting the financing of an incremental spending reform from wage to
interest income results in a higher welfare cost.
Finally, for each of the reforms we examine, higher marginal tax
rates and greater labor supply elasticities result in both higher values
for MWC and a greater degree of upward bias in the static estimate. It
follows that our estimates of MWC are biased downward insofar as
tax-deductible expenditures and employer-provided fringe benefits are
not incorporated. As emphasized by Feldstein (1999), the elasticity of
taxable income may be increased substantially when these tax-favored
goods are taken into account. For example, in a representative consumer
model with tax-favored goods but no human or physical capital
investment, Parry (2002) obtains estimates of MWC that range between 0.2
and 0.4 for an exhaustive spending reform and between 0.3 and 0.5 for an
incremental demogrant. These are approximately twice the values we
obtain for the static model using parameter set A, whose values are
similar to those adopted by Parry. Thus incorporating tax-favored goods
could double our dynamic estimates of MWC. Nonetheless, our results
indicate that opportunities to adjust investment decisions, especially
those involving human capital, play an important role in reducing the
marginal welfare cost of tax and spending reforms.
APPENDIX
In this appendix we (i) present details of the income compensation
scheme, (ii) outline the derivation of equation (10) for marginal social
cost, (iii) describe the method used to calculate changes in labor
supplies and investments, and (iv) discuss our choices for parameter
values not indicated in the text. A more detailed appendix is available
from the authors.
(i) The incomes of households that are retired, [I.sup.0]
[equivalent to] ([K.sub.3]/p) + [A.sub.3]; middle-aged, [I.sup.m] =
[w.sub.2][[delta].sub.2]T + ([K.sub.2]/p) + [A.sub.2] + p[A.sub.3]; and
young, given in equation (8), change as a result of policy reforms, and
these changes are adjusted to control for transitional effects by
compensating additions that net out to 0 in the aggregate. The income
compensation is [C.sup.0] [equivalent to] [K.sub.3][d[tau]r) - dr] -
d[R.sup.*] for retired households, where d[R.sup.*] = dR + WC is the
amount by which per household tax revenue would change if tax bases were
perfectly inelastic; for middle aged households, the compensation is
[C.sup.m] [equivalent to] [[delta].sub.2][h.sub.2][d(W[m.sub.2]) - dW] +
[K.sub.2][d([tau]r) - dr] - d[R.sup.*] + p[C.sup.0]; and for young
households is [C.sup.y] [equivalent to]
[[delta].sub.1][h.sub.1][d(W[m.sub.1]) - dW] - d[R.sup.*] + p[C.sup.m].
Thus, after compensation, the income of a household in period t [member
of] {y, m, o} of the life cycle changes by d[I.sup.t] + [C.sup.t].
(ii) Equation (10) for marginal social cost is obtained by totally
differentiating equation (2) for income [I.sub.t], solving for the cost
term d[A.sub.t] + [l.sub.t]d([w.sub.t][[delta].sub.t]) - d[I.sub.t],
substituting for [h.sub.t]d([m.sub.t]W[[delta].sub.t]) +
d([tau]r[K.sub.t]) from the total differential of equation (3) for tax
revenue [R.sub.t], and then aggregating across households. The terms
involving dW and dr net out to 0, d[R.sub.t] aggregates to dR, and the
tax leakage terms given in equation (13) yield welfare cost, WC. The
remaining changes in physical capital are allocated to the golden rule
effect G given in equation (11), along with two terms involving the
change in education, d[e.sub.1]. The first of these terms enters through
the differential d[I.sub.1], and the second enters through d[I.sub.2]
from the change in human capital d[[delta].sub.2] given in equation
(14). The term involving d[[bar.[delta]].sub.2] in equation (14) yields
the education externality E given in equation (12). Finally, we use the
first-order condition for human capital investment,
(A1) p[w.sub.2][h.sub.2][[bar.[delta]].sub.2]f'
([[delta].sub.1][e.sub.1]) = [w.sub.1],
to eliminate [w.sub.2][h.sub.2][[bar.[delta]].sub.2]f' from
the golden rule effect and to eliminate [w.sub.2][h.sub.2] from the
education externality.
(iii) To calculate changes in labor supplies and investments, we
solve the differential equation system derived from the lifetime budget
constraint (7) and the first-order conditions (A1) for human capital
investment and
(A2) [sigma][V.sup.2.sub.I]/[V.sup.1.sub.I] = p and
[sigma][V.sup.3.sub.I]/[V.sup.2.sub.I] = p
for optimal spending over the life cycle. The resulting set of
partial derivatives of [e.sub.1] and [I.sub.t] with respect to
[I.sup.y], p, [w.sub.1], [w.sub.2], and z can be evaluated numerically
once the initial equilibrium is specified along with four elasticities
needed to determine the coefficient matrix for the comparative statics
effects. First, from (A2) we have
(A3) [partial derivative]([sigma][V.sup.t.sub.I]/V.sup.t-1.sub.I])/
[partial derivative][I.sub.t-1] = -p[V.sup.t-1.sub.II]/[V.sup.t-1.sub.I]
= -p[[rho].sub.t-1]/[I.sub.t-1],
which depends on the index of relative risk aversion [rho] (the
inverse of the intertemporal elasticity of substitution). Second, we
have
(A4) [partial derivative]([sigma][V.sup.2.sub.I]/V.sup.1.sub.I])/
[partial derivative]e = ([[rho].sub.2] +
[[eta].sub.I][h.sub.2]/[l.sub.2])
[w.sub.1][[delta].sub.1][l.sub.2]/[I.sub.2][h.sub.2],
which depends on the income elasticity of labor supply,
[[theta].sub.I], whose values are recorded in Table 1. Third, we assume
that both the marginal utility of income and labor supply are
independent of z, so that changes in the supply of z have no affect on
either human or physical capital investment. Finally, the partial
derivative of (A1) with respect to [e.sub.1] depends on the elasticity
of marginal labor productivity with respect to education. (Notice that
the subjective discount factor plays no role in the calculations, since
it is eliminated from the terms such as (A3) and (A4) in the comparative
statics coefficient matrix.)
The behavioral changes d[I.sub.t] and d[e.sub.1] can be expressed
as linear equations of the changes in factor prices and public spending
with coefficients that depend solely on the numerical values obtained
for the comparative statics effects. Using the relation dr = -(H/K)dW,
we can then express d[I.sub.t] as a linear function of dR and dW, whose
coefficients have numerical values that depend on the policy reform
d[tau], d[m.sub.t], and [beta]. Following Mayshar (1991), we introduce
general equilibrium effects through the parameter [gamma] =
-[HF.sub.HH]/ [F.sub.H], allowing us to write dW = -[gamma]W[(dH/H) -
(dK/K)]. Using this equation along with the differential equations for
tax revenue, saving, and labor supply, expressed in elasticity form and
aggregated across households, we arrive at a system of four linear
equations in dR, dW, dK, and dH that we solve to evaluate changes in
labor supply and investment decisions for a specified policy reform,
allowing us to calculate the associated welfare cost and MWC.
(iv) Following Ballard (1988), we assume [gamma] = 0.3215. Our base
case tax rates and labor supply elasticities are taken from Browning and
Johnson (1984) who specify five tax brackets. Our comparison set is
taken from Triest (1994), whose deciles are combined to create
quintiles, which also provide the explicit lump-sum transfers used in
our calculations. We assume households may change income brackets over
the life cycle, and construct 10 lifetime profiles using the 1991 cohort of the Panel Study of Income Dynamics to specify the proportion of
households in each profile along with household size (which determines a
household's demogrant). We also rely on the Panel Study to
determine initial productivities by dividing incomes by hours worked for
young households. We adopt the function f([[delta].sub.1][e.sub.1]) =
[alpha]ln([[delta].sub.1] [e.sub.1] + 1) to determine [[delta].sub.2]
and the elasticity of marginal labor productivity with respect to
education. Following Driffil and Rosen (1983), we assume that a year of
education increases productivity by 10%, and we rely on Davies and
Whalley (1991) who estimate that young workers devote 32% of their time
to education (or training) to arrive at the assumption that
[[bar.[delta]].sub.2] is 3.2% higher than [[bar.[delta]].sub.1] = 9.833.
We then choose a value for a that results in [[bar.[delta]].sub.2] =
10.14, allowing us to deduce values for and [e.sub.1] and
[[delta].sub.2]. Using the Panel Study to obtain labor hours for
households in middle age, we then determine second period wages.
Finally, we draw on Fullerton and Rogers (1993) to generate saving rates
and capital holdings.
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(1.) We assume that aggregate output is produced by a surrogate production function with constant returns to scale F(H, K), where H is
aggregate effective labor supplied per household and K is the capital
stock per household. The wage rate for effective units of labor is W
[equivalent to] [F.sub.H] and the interest rate is r [equivalent to]
[F.sub.K], where subscripts denote partial derivatives. Thus, dW =
[F.sub.HH]dH + [F.sub.HH]dK, and dr = [F.sub.KH]dH + [F.sub.KK]dK. With
constant returns to scale, the marginal products are homogenous of
degree 0, implying that [F.sub.KH]H + [F.sub.KK]K = 0 and [F.sub.HH]H +
[F.sub.HK]K = 0. As a result, dW = [F.sub.KH][-(K/H)dH + dK] and dr =
[F.sub.KH][dH--H/K)dK], implying that dr = -(H/K)dW. Thus, W and r are
endogenous, but they are not age-specific because we focus on steady
states for the economy. Consequently, they are not subscripted by t.
(2.) Note that tax revenue as defined in (3) includes the implicit
lump-sum transfer (tax) that arises under a progressive (regressive)
rate structure, because wage tax revenue is calculated in equation (3)
as though the marginal tax rate equals the average tax rate. We account
for these implicit transfers effected through the wage tax by including
them in public spending and adding them to any explicit lump-sum
transfers to arrive at the amount denoted by [A.sub.t]. As emphasized by
Allgood and Snow (1998), this procedure ensures that all intended
redistribution, whether implemented through the wage tax structure or
through explicit transfers, is treated the same when calculating welfare
cost and the change in tax revenue.
(3.) The first three terms on the left-hand side of the budget
constraint (7) represent the allocation of income over the life cycle.
The next term represents spending on education, which we assume consists
entirely of forgone wages. The final term represents the present value
of the gross return to human capital investment.
(4.) [NB.sub.t] = d[V.sup.t]/[V.sup.t.sub.I] =
[([V.sup.t.sub.w[delta]]d ([w.sup.t][[delta].sub.t] + [V.sup.t.sub.z]dz
+ [V.sup.t.sub.I]d[I.sub.t])]/ [V.sup.t.sub.I]. Substitute for the
definition of [MRS.sub.t], and use Roy's identity,
[V.sup.t.sub.w[delta]]/[V.sup.t.sub.I] = -[l.sup.t], to obtain the first
line of equation (9). Note that d([w.sub.t][[delta].sub.t]) =
[[delta].sub.t][dw.sub.t] + [w.sub.t]d[[delta].sub.t].
(5.) The derivation of MSC is discussed in the appendix.
(6.) Note that NB is the sum of the per household net benefits
accruing to contemporaneous old, middle, and young households, NB =
[NB.sup.o] + (1 + n)[NB.sup.m] + [(1 + n).sup.2] [NB.sup.y]. If we
discount lifetime net benefits to the present and aggregate over all
living and future generations, then we obtain
[MATHEMATICAL EXPRESSION NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]
for a steady-state change. Thus, the social welfare change NB given
in equation (15) is proportional to the discounted lifetime net benefits
accruing to all living and future households.
(7.) Our compensation scheme is described further in the appendix.
A more detailed description of our scheme and the example discussed in
the text is available from the authors on request.
(8.) These profiles, along with the data and parameters used to
construct the initial equilibrium of the model, are available from the
authors on request.
(9.) Judd (1985, 1987) and Engen et al. (1997) adopt a value of
one-half for the intertemporal elasticity of substitution for their
central cases. Gravelle (1991) follows Auerbach et al. (1983) and
assumes a value of one-quarter. Perroni (1995) sets the elasticity equal
to 1, while Trostel (1993) suggests that a value between 1/4 and I is
appropriate.
(10.) Under this assumption, discussed by Wildasin (1984), labor
supply is perfectly inelastic with respect to spending on the public
good. We also assume that the same is true of investments in physical
and human capital.
(11.) The dynamic estimates reported in the tables assume a value
of one-half for the intertemporal elasticity of substitution. For
parameter set A, the estimated value for MWC in the case of wage
taxation falls from 0.07 to 0. 05 and 0.001 as this elasticity falls to
1/4 and 1/8, and with capital taxation the estimated value
correspondingly falls from 0.13 to 0.09 and 0.01.
(12.) Our results confirm the conclusion reached by Goulder and
Roberton (2003), who show that general equilibrium effects can make a
substantial contribution to excess burden as a tax on one commodity
influences other tax bases. For example, an increase in the tax on
capital income (d[tau] > 0) contributes very little to welfare cost
through the capital tax base, since [tau]r is very small, but makes a
substantial contribution through the labor tax base. (Note that although
the decline in labor supply is greater when the labor tax increases,
there is a much smaller offsetting increase in human capital investment
when the capital tax increases.)
(13.) For parameter set A, the estimated value for MWC falls from
0.15 to 0.14 and 0.12 as the intertemporal elasticity of substitution
falls from one-half to one-quarter and one-eighth, and with capital
taxation the estimated value falls from 0.21 to 0.19 and 0.13.
(14.) In parameter set A the compensated elasticities range from
0.22 to 0.52. The average value of the compensated elasticity increases
from 0.32 to 0.51, whereas the average value of the uncompensated
elasticity increases from 0.23 to 0.39. These higher average
elasticities are consistent with many of the estimates reviewed in
Blundell and MaCurdy (1999).
(15.) For simplicity, consider a household in middle age with
[[delta].sub.2] = 1, and assume the budget constraint is [I.sub.l] + pI
= wT with x + wl = [I.sub.1] for consumption of x and leisure l = T - h
in middle age, and consumption I in retirement. Let labor supply in the
static model where I is fixed be denoted by [h.sup.o] (w, I), let labor
supply in the dynamic model be denoted by h(w, p), and let I(w, p)
denote optimal retirement income. Then h(w, p) = [h.sup.o](w, I[w, p])
implies [h.sub.w] = [h.sup.o.sub.w] + [h.sup.o.sub.I][I.sub.w] so that
we have [h.sub.w] < [h.sup.o.sub.w] if [h.sup.o.sub.I][I.sub.w] >
O. The last inequality holds because an increase in I implies a
reduction in [I.sub.1] and an increase in static labor supply
([h.sup.o.sub.I] > 0), wheras an increase in w increases lifetime
income so that I increase ([I.sub.w] > 0).
(16.) For example, for the demogrant funded by an increase in the
marginal tax on labor income reported in Table 3, dG/dR = -0.0001 and
dE/dR = 0.0001.
SAM ALLGOOD and ARTHUR SNOW *
* The authors gratefully acknowledge the helpful comments of two
anonymous referees.
Allgood: Associate Professor, Department of Economics, University
of Nebraska, Lincoln, NE 68588-0489. Phone 1-402-472-3367, Fax
1-402-472-9700, E-mail sallgood@unl.edu
Snow: Professor, Department of Economics, University of Georgia,
Athens, GA, 30605. Phone 1-706-542-3752, Fax 1-706-543-3376.
TABLE 1
Tax Rates and Elasticities by
Income Bracket
Average Marginal Elasticity of Labor Supply
Income Tax Tax
Bracket Rate Rate Uncompensated Income
Parameter set A
First 0.39 0.544 0.435 -0.016
Second 0.33 0.471 0.263 -0.027
Third 0.33 0.408 0.169 -0.024
Fourth 0.34 0.388 0.138 -0.036
Fifth 0.56 0.446 0.213 -0.047
Parameter set B
First 0.060 0.275 0.105 -0.008
Second 0.166 0.235 0.100 -0.005
Third 0.182 0.270 0.113 -0.005
Fourth 0.208 0.335 0.123 -0.005
Fifth 0.268 0.395 0.133 -0.008
TABLE 2
Welfare Cost of Revenue Neutral Reforms
Parameter WC dm d[tau] dW dr
Set A -0.1088 0.0001 -0.0314 0.0002 -0.0040
Set B -0.0194 0.0001 -0.0197 0.0001 -0.0025
d[e.sub.1]/
Parameter dH/H (%) dK/K (%) [e.sub.1] (%) dR
Set A 0.0011 0.0569 -0.0043 0.00
Set B 0.0011 0.0448 -0.0119 0.00
TABLE 3
Marginal Welfare Cost of Exhaustive Spending Reforms
Parameter WC dm d[tau] dW dr
Set A 0.0700 0.01 0.00 0.0013 -0.0309
0.1284 0.00 0.01 -0.0001 0.0012
Set B 0.0425 0.01 0.00 0.0015 -0.0262
0.0528 0.00 0.01 -0.0001 0.0011
d[e.sub.1]/
Parameter dH/H (%) dK/K (%) [e.sub.1] (%) dR
Set A -0.1492 0.2821 2.0311 186.37
-0.0008 -0.0200 0.0079 0.59
Set B -0.1249 0.3466 0.7534 188.13
-0.0007 -0.0210 0.0099 0.96
TABLE 4 Marginal Welfare Cost of Demogrant Reforms
MWC dm d2 dW dr
Set A 0.1470 0.01 0.00 0.0005 -0.0115
0.2097 0.00 0.01 -0.0001 0.0012
Set B 0.0550 0.01 0.00 0.0005 -0.0081
0.0653 0.00 0.01 -0.0001 0.0012
d[e.sub.1]/
dH/H (%) dK/K (%) [e.sub.1] (%) dR
Set A -0.2892 -0.1286 0.8640 173.51
-0.0013 -0.0185 0.0041 0.55
Set B -0.1609 -0.0152 -0.3253 187.62
-0.0009 -0.0228 0.0044 0.95
TABLE 5
Marginal Welfare Cost and the Role of
Human Capital
Static Exogenous Full
Parameter Reform Model Education Model
Set A Exhaustive 0.1600 0.1165 0.0700
Spending
Demogrant 0.2427 0.1987 0.1470
Set B Exhaustive 0.0550 0.0537 0.0425
Spending
Demogrant 0.0628 0.0665 0.0550
Set A' Exhaustive 0.2946 0.2494 0.1580
Spending
Demogrant 0.4020 0.3904 0.2858