%0 Report
        %A Rubolino, Enrico
%A Waldenström, Daniel
        %T Trends and Gradients in Top Tax Elasticities: Cross-Country Evidence, 1900–2014
        %D 2017
        %8 2017 Mar
        %I Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)
        %C Bonn
        %7 IZA Discussion Paper
        %N 10667
        %U https://www.iza.org/index.php/publications/dp10667
        %X We compile data spanning the period 1900–2014 and up to 30 countries to study long-run patterns in the tax elasticity of top incomes. Our results show that top tax elasticities vary tremendously over time; they were medium-to-low before 1950, virtually zero during the postwar era up to 1980 and have thereafter increased to unprecedented levels. We document a strong income gradient in tax response within the top, underlining the importance to study even small top groups separately. Several mechanisms are investigated. Tax-driven income shifting between wage and capital income is important in the very top. Wars, financial crises, and country-specific effects and trends have bearing on top elasticities whereas standard macroeconomic factors and indicators of "real responses" do not.

        %K taxation
%K income inequality
%K economic history