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Do political incentives matter for tax policies? Ideology, opportunism and the tax structure

Author

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  • Konstantinos Angelopoulos
  • George Economides
  • Pantelis Kammas
Abstract
This paper investigates the importance of political ideology and opportunism in the choice of the tax structure. In particular, we examine the effects of cabinet ideology and elections on the distribution of the tax burden across factors of production and consumption for 21 OECD countries over the period 1970-2000 by employing four alternative cabinet ideology measures and by using the methodology of effective tax rates. There is evidence of both opportunistic and partisan effects on tax policies. More precisely, we find that left-wing governments rely more on capital relative to labor income taxation and that they tend to increase consumption taxes. Moreover, we find that income tax rates (but not consumption taxes) tend to be reduced in pre-electoral periods and that capital effective tax rates (defined broadly to include taxes on self-employed income) are reduced by more than effective labor tax rates.

Suggested Citation

  • Konstantinos Angelopoulos & George Economides & Pantelis Kammas, 2009. "Do political incentives matter for tax policies? Ideology, opportunism and the tax structure," Working Papers 2009_12, Business School - Economics, University of Glasgow.
    • Handle: RePEc:gla:glaewp:2009_12
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    Cited by:

    1. Ernesto Stein & Lorena Caro, 2017. "Ideology and Taxation in Latin America," Economía Journal, The Latin American and Caribbean Economic Association - LACEA, vol. 0(Spring 20), pages 1-27, April.
    2. Abbott, Andrew & Jones, Philip, 2014. "‘Leaning Against an Open Door’: Ideology and the cyclicality of public expenditure," Journal of Policy Modeling, Elsevier, vol. 36(6), pages 957-969.
    3. Víctor Mauricio Castaneda, 2016. "Las crisis económicas y el escenario político en la introducción de reformas tributarias. La experiencia argentina (1980-2010) y una constatación para Latinoamérica," Revista Cuadernos de Economia, Universidad Nacional de Colombia, FCE, CID, vol. 35(Especial ), pages 173-206, January.
    4. Stein, Ernesto & Caro, Lorena, 2017. "Ideology and taxation in Latin America," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 123080, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    tax structure; political economy; partisan and opportunistic effects;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • H2 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue
    • H1 - Public Economics - - Structure and Scope of Government

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