Capital taxation and globalization

Abstract

The decline of capital taxation is associated with efficiency gains.We show that, when agents are heterogeneous, equity concerns can change the policy recommendation driven by efficiency. Given the empirical evidence on the roots of heterogeneity inside each country, either in/ndeveloping or developed economies, the elimination of capital taxation would lead always to a decline in inequality and to an increase of welfare of the poorest, in a small open economy acting unilaterally. On the contrary for a closed economy, or for group of open economies following the same policy, the opposite can be the result: with the elimination of capital taxation it can hurts the poorest of each country. Therefore a low degree of capital openness can support a positive tax on capital.