TY  - RPRT
        AU  - Rubolino, Enrico
AU  - Waldenström, Daniel
        TI  - Trends and Gradients in Top Tax Elasticities: Cross-Country Evidence, 1900–2014
        PY  - 2017/Mar/
        PB  - Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)
        CY  - Bonn
        T2  - IZA Discussion Paper
        IS  - 10667
        UR  - https://www.iza.org/index.php/publications/dp10667
        AB  - 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.

        KW  - taxation
KW  - income inequality
KW  - economic history
        ER  -