Structural tax reforms and public spending efficiency

We evaluate the effects of structural tax reforms on government spending efficiency in a sample of OECD economies over the period 2007-2016. After calculating input spending efficiency scores, we assess the relevance for efficiency of narrative tax changes in a panel setup. We find that: i) input ef...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Afonso, António (author)
Other Authors: Jalles, João Tovar (author), Venâncio, Ana (author)
Format: workingPaper
Language:eng
Published: 2020
Subjects:
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/10400.5/20572
Country:Portugal
Oai:oai:www.repository.utl.pt:10400.5/20572
Description
Summary:We evaluate the effects of structural tax reforms on government spending efficiency in a sample of OECD economies over the period 2007-2016. After calculating input spending efficiency scores, we assess the relevance for efficiency of narrative tax changes in a panel setup. We find that: i) input efficiency scores average around 0.6-07; ii) increases in the tax rates are reflected in falling public sector efficiency; iii) such negative effect is significant for PIT and VAT; iv) controlling for endogeneity, increases in tax rates are still associated with lower public sector efficiency, mainly in PIT; v) increasing tax bases for PIT and VAT improve public sector efficiency; vi) in economic expansion periods, increasing CIT base and reducing PIT rates, positively affect public sector efficiency; ix) in recessions, efficiency improves when PIT and VAT bases increase and CIT rate increases.