BLOG: deadweight costs

Will Company Tax Cuts Trickle Down or Trickle Up?

Will Company Tax Cuts Trickle Down or Trickle Up?

By Catherine Cashmore The proposal to cut the company tax rate from 30% to 25% has received much media attention. We are repeatedly told it is needed to boost investment.  The rational follows that companies are more likely to invest in productivity if they don’t have...

In favour of Land Tax

Letters to the Editor Bryan Kavanagh Glen Waverley 13.04.2015 The expected backlash to "A tax on land would be fair, efficient and unpopular" (Comment, 8/4) has arrived (Letters, 9 and 10/4). The wealthy will cry crocodile tears for asset-rich, income-poor people....

The Gaffney Quantum Leap Effect

Fred E. Foldvary In economics, the waste of resources caused by a tax has two names. One is the "deadweight loss," a loss to the economy with no offsetting gain. The other name is the "excess burden," since the burden on the economy is in addition to or in excess of...