Optimal cooperative taxation in the global economy

How should countries cooperate in setting fiscal and trade policies when government expenditures must be financed with distorting taxes? We show that even if countries cannot make explicit transfers to each other, every point on the Pareto frontier is production efficient, so that international trad...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Chari, V. V. (author)
Other Authors: Nicolini, Juan Pablo (author), Teles, Pedro (author)
Format: preprint
Language:eng
Published: 2022
Subjects:
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/10400.14/38217
Country:Portugal
Oai:oai:repositorio.ucp.pt:10400.14/38217
Description
Summary:How should countries cooperate in setting fiscal and trade policies when government expenditures must be financed with distorting taxes? We show that even if countries cannot make explicit transfers to each other, every point on the Pareto frontier is production efficient, so that international trade and capital flows should be effectively free. Trade agreements must be supplemented with fiscal policy agreements. Residence-based income tax systems have advantages over source-based systems. Taxing all household asset income at a country-specific uniform rate and setting the corporate income tax to zero yield efficient outcomes. Value-added taxes should be adjusted at the border.