Wednesday 22 April 2015

So cut the basic rate of income tax?

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Tax cuts stimulate employment best when they benefit the lowest paid most. Or rather as is pointed out here, the bottom 90% of taxpayers. So while I absolutely support taking the poorest out of tax altogether - indeed I would support an ambition that no-one below median income should pay income tax - a basic rate cut would be a real boost for growth and jobs;

Variation in the income distribution across U.S. states and federal tax changes generate variation in regional tax shocks that I exploit to test for heterogeneous effects. I find that the positive relationship between tax cuts and employment growth is largely driven by tax cuts for lower-income groups and that the effect of tax cuts for the top 10% on employment growth is small.

But then we knew tax cuts were a good thing didn't we?

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