Wealth Taxation and Household Saving: Evidence from Assessment Discontinuities in Norway
Review of Economic Studies · 2024 · [{"name": "Marius Alexander Kalleberg Ring", "affiliation": ["The University of Texas at Austin"]}]
中文摘要
理论与现有经验证据均不支持财富税会减少储蓄这一观点。理论上，由于收入效应与替代效应方向相反，其影响并不明确。经验上，这一效应可能被误报行为所掩盖。利用挪威年度净财富税中的地理断点以及第三方报告的储蓄数据，我发现财富税导致家庭增加储蓄。财富税每增加1挪威克朗，家庭年度净金融储蓄增加3.76挪威克朗，这意味着家庭增加的储蓄足以抵消当前和未来的财富税。这种对储蓄的正向效应主要通过劳动收入的增加来提供资金。这些反应是提高边际税率带来的小幅负效应与提高平均税率带来的较大正效应共同作用的结果。我的研究结果表明，在家庭对回报率冲击的反应中，收入效应可能主导替代效应，这对最优税收理论和宏观经济建模均具有启示意义。
Abstract
Abstract Neither theory nor existing empirical evidence support the notion that wealth taxation reduces saving. Theoretically, the effect is ambiguous due to opposing income and substitution effects. Empirically, the effect may be masked by misreporting responses. Using geographic discontinuities in the Norwegian annual net-wealth tax and third-party-reported data on savings, I find that wealth taxation causes households to save more. Each additional NOK of wealth tax increases annual net financial saving by 3.76, implying that households increase saving enough to offset both current and future wealth taxes. This positive effect on saving is primarily financed by increases in labour earnings. These responses are the combination of small negative effects of increasing the marginal tax rates and larger positive effects of increasing average rates. My findings imply that income effects may dominate substitution effects in household responses to rate-of-return shocks, which has implications for both optimal taxation and macroeconomic modelling.