萨缪尔森经济学Economics第十八版 18th 课后概念、习题答案16

CHAPTER OVERVIEW AND TEACHING TIPS In most advanced industrial countries, including the United States, government has grown dramatically over the past few decades. Spending is growing; tax receipts are growing (after a brief downturn); income-support programs and regulato-ry intervention into the marketplace have become a way of life. Farm-support payments exploded in the 1980s. Debate within your class may suggest the likely direction that this type of activity will take over the next few years, but every-one should be convinced that the days of anything remotely resembling widespread laissez-faire policy are long ernments take an active role in the marketplace.Much of the text covered thus far has presented the wide range of economic instruments with which government influences the everyday lives of its citizens. Y ou can certainly draw on the material that you have covered in previous chapters for examples and discussion topics as you work through this chapter. (This is, in fact, an excellent if not pain-less way to review.) However, it is not the purpose of this chapter to reiterate. Instead, it is to investigate principles on which government policy actions are founded and to better understand the impact of this taxing and spending.The chapter begins with a discussion of the tools that governments use to achieve policy objectives. Functions of government are outlined, followed by a brief introduction to public choice theory. (Those who have used this book in previous editions will notice that this public choice section has been significantly shortened.) The second section of the chapter addresses government expenditures at the federal, state, and local levels. The third section looks at various aspects of taxation, from principles underlying alternative tax schemes to the particular taxes that are collected at all lev-els in the United States. Finally, difficult issues surrounding tax incidence are explored.LEARNING OBJECTIVES1.Define how the three tools of government policy—taxes, expenditures and transfers, and regulation—can be used to affect economic behavior.2.Chronicle the changes in government spending, taxation, and regulatory activity over the past few decades,particularly in the United States.3.Explain and provide examples of the four major functions that government must consider: (a) improve economic efficiency, (b) reduce economic inequality, (c) stabilize the economy using macroeconomic policies, and (d) conduct international economic policy.4.Understand the genesis of public choice —the need to determine whether government is organized in a way that allows it to achieve its objectives.5.Describe the nature of the patterns of expenditure by local, state, and federal governments in the United States, and outline the recent evolution of those patterns into what we see today. Explain the difference between local and national public goods.6.Relate, on the basis of the patterns described above, the construction of an efficient system of fiscal federali sm and the blurring that necessarily occurs along the boundaries of the different levels of government. List the most impor-tant types of expenditures made at each level.7.Describe the conflicting principles of taxation—the benefit approach and the ability-to-pay approach—and the com-promise between the two that has been accomplished in the United States.8.Understand the difference between progressive and regressive taxation, and apply this distinction to differentiate the various taxes employed in the United States.77C H A P T E RG o v e r n m e n t T a x a t i o na n d E x p e n d i t u r e1678C HAPTER16: G OVERNMENT T AXATION AND E XPENDITURE 9.Describe the character and importance of (a) individual income taxes, (b) sales taxes, (c) excise taxes, (d) payrolltaxes, and (e) corporate income taxes, all paid at the federal level in the United States. Define the terms of the debate surrounding institution of a value-added tax or a flat tax.10.Describe the character and importance of (a) property taxes, and (b) sales and other taxes, all paid at the state andlocal levels in the United States.11.Describe sources of inefficiency in the tax system. Provide evidence to support the notion that Ramsey taxes aremore efficient than other sorts of tax programs.12.Define the term tax incidence. Explain why and how a tax might not fall on the economic agent identified in the taxcodes.SUGGESTED ANSWERS TO QUESTIONS IN THE TEXT1.Taxes are collected in order to finance the affairs of government. Review the functions of government outlined inthe chapter and discuss the importance of those functions.2.These are difficult questions. Make your cases on the basis of cost, benefit and likelihood of success. Also, discussthe secondary incentives that your proposals might generate. High taxes and outright prohibition of these sorts of behaviors create underground economies and may generate illegal activities that have higher costs than the activities themselves.3.Think of taxes that are the sticks of disincentive designed to discourage certain sorts of behavior. Pollution taxesare fine examples. Strong lobby groups generally oppose these taxes because they would not be required if the targeted behaviors were not privately profitable. Even when the advocates of social welfare carry the day, lobbyists oppose taxes and favor direct controls. That way their clients get to do some of what they want for free.Consider, for example, the sulfur polluter. Let 100 tons per week be the target level of emission. With a standard, the polluter gets the first 100 tons free. With a tax designed to elicit 100 tons (say, $10 per ton), the polluter must pay $1000 for those 100 tons.4.Lump-sum taxes cause no changes in relative prices. That is, the price of apples relative to oranges is not changed,nor is the opportunity cost of one activity relative to another. One difficulty involved in implementing an endow-ment tax involves equity. Although these lump-sum taxes are efficient in an economic sense, they may make up a much larger portion of one household’s budget compared to another wealthier household. Therefore, it might be considered inequitable to implement such a tax.5.Progressive federal taxes:personal income tax, death and estate taxes, corporation income tax. Roughly propor-tional (though mildly regressive due to maximum liabilities): payroll (social security) tax. Regressive: excise taxes, highway tolls, customs duties.Trading the income tax for a consumption tax would likely be a move toward regressive taxation, since poorer peo-ple spend larger percentages of their incomes on items that carry a sales tax; in response to this observation, some argue that the consumption tax rate could be progressive. A universal sales tax could not incorporate such rate flexi-bility, though, and would be more regressive.6.This is a thought question for which there are many answers. Some initial ideas are as follows:a.An AIDS vaccine: Global—subsidize its production and distribution;b.Pollution controls designed to reduce acid rain: National/global—levy effluent charges or impose standards[with compensation (?)];c.Coastal defenses against ocean storms: Local or national—make provision;d. A program directed at reducing factory noise in New Britain: Local—engage in regulation [based on nationalor international standards to maintain competitive position (?)];e.CFC emissions reductions to prevent ozone depletion in the stratosphere: Global—impose absolute standardsor ban them [substitutes exist (?)].7. a.Prices increase for consumers, with the tax being shared between consumers and producers. We would expectconsumers to pay more of the tax in the short run, when demand is relatively more inelastic.b.If labor supply is perfectly inelastic, the workers will bear the entire burden of any new payroll tax. If laborsupply is backward bending, the burden of the tax will depend on the market’s current position on the curve.c.The corporation will pay the entire tax because any reduction in return will cause capital flight.8.Correlation does not imply causation. To analyze the experience correctly, you need a model that captures causality,a complete description of the tax cuts and how they were distributed, and some historical context to evaluate theimpact of changes in other economic variables.C HAPTER16: G OVERNMENT T AXATION ANDE XPENDITURE799.Average tax rates based on AGI: 0,1.5, 6, 9, 15, and l9 percent.Marginal tax rates based on the indicated jumps in AGI: 3, 11,11, 20, 21 percent. The tax is progressive on the basis of the adjusted gross income.Average tax rates based on T7: 0,15, 15, 15, 21, and 24 percent.Marginal tar rates based on the indicated jumps in TV: 15, 15, 15, 25, and 25 percent.A flat tax would simplify the tax code and make filing a less arduous task for most taxpayers. However, it wouldnot provide as progressive a tax scheme, and hence may lead to an increase in inequality in the distribution of income.DISCUSSION QUESTIONS1.Explain the difference between transfer expenditures by government and other expenditures. How should each betreated in evaluating the size of government?2.Describe in some detail the budget of the federal government for the current fiscal year. Look at data for the pastfew years to determine the time trends of each component. As you construct your review of recent history, be sure to cover at least two presidential administrations. Can you see any changes in the trends through the transitions?Also, use real, not nominal, figures in your analysis.3.From a global point of view, defense spending is a waste of resources. From a national point of view, defensespending might be a necessity. Discuss the distinction. Provide your own normative value judgment.4.Identify taxes that are important at the federal level and at the state and local levels. Which are progressive andwhich are regressive? Evaluate the suggestion by the Reagan administration that revenues for various social pro-grams be collected by the states and not by the federal government from an efficiency perspective. Do the same from an equity standpoint.5.Discuss the various proposals for tax reform that have surfaced recently. Concentrate particularly on the flat taxproposal and the value-added proposal. What sort of tax reductions might you have proposed in the 2000 election campaign, and how would you have supported your proposals?6.Should a citizen of Connecticut be asked to pay taxes to help a citizen of California? Of Rhode Island? Of India?Why or why not? If you answered “yes,” consider questions of implementation: What type of taxes should be used? Does it matter if the need for assistance elsewhere is related to what goes on in Connecticut? Can you quantify measures of “moral obligation” in terms of tax liability? Does “ability to pay” matter?7.Suggest how the following taxes are most likely to affect the distribution of income: (a) a regressive tax, (b) aproportional tax, (c) a corporate income tax, (d) an inheritance or estate tax, (e) a sales tax, or (f) a value-added tax.8.“Unequals should be taxed unequally” is a dictum that misses the essential questions of designing a tax system.What are those questions and how do they fit into the unequals dictum?9.What is meant by tax incidence? Why is it a topic of great interest? Try to reason out the possible incidence of thecorporation tax.10.What is meant by tax expenditure? Would you be in favor of eliminating these “expenditures?” Why? All of them?What, for example, would be the effect of eliminating the deductibility of mortgage-interest payments?11.Generate a list of things that government now does in the economic arena that it did not do 5, 10, or 15 years ago.Explore the genesis of one of the elements on that list, paying particular attention to its political dimension. Where did it get its support? How was it mobilized? Generate a second list of things that the government no longer does that it used to do, and explore their demise in a parallel fashion.12.List the various major roles that government plays in a mixed economy and discuss the likely trend of each over thenext half decade or so. Do election-year issues change those trends?13.What is meant by horizontal equity? Does it necessarily imply that married couples earning the same combinedincome should be taxed the same, regardless of whether the household contains one or two workers? Which family is better off? Which family, if any, has a higher income potentially? Why?ESSAY QUESTIONS1.List the principal expenditure items in the federal budget, and in the budgets of state and local governments.Indicate the relative importance of each. Produce a similar list of tax expenditures and compare the distributional aspects of the three lists.80C HAPTER16: G OVERNMENT T AXATION AND E XPENDITURE 2.Suggest and support a tax reform by which the progressive properties of the corporate income tax can be maintainedwhile removing the inefficient taxation of corporate investment. (This is a difficult question of considerable con-troversy.)3.Do some taxes actually promote efficiency? If not, why not? If so, explain how and provide a specific example.4.Describe an efficient system of fiscal federalism and compare it with (a) the current structure and (b) a structure thatwould move much of the tax collection burden to the states.5.Describe the distributional properties of (a) the present tax structure of the United States, (b) the present expenditurepattern of the United States, and (c) the two halves of the equation taken together. How do your answers depend on assumptions of incidence and efficiency?6.With the design of tax systems in mind, contrast the ability-to-pay approach with the benefits approach. Relate bothapproaches to the structure of American taxation.7.“Some taxes serve primarily to pay for public goods. Some serve to raise revenues. Some serve to redistributeincome.” Explain and contrast. Give examples.pute the marginal tax rate for the 1999 federal income tax at different levels of affluence. Does it differ fromthe tax/income ratio? How?9.How do taxes affect the inequality of income distribution? Do government expenditures affect the inequality? Whyor why not? Give examples.10.Explain what it means for a tax to be progressive, proportional, or regressive. In which category does each of thesetypes of federal tax receipts fall?a.Excise taxes—tobacco, liquor, gasolineb.Payroll taxesc.Personal income taxesd.Corporation income taxese.Estate and gift taxes11.What types of taxes predominate at the state and local level? Are state and local taxes more or less progressive thanfederal taxes? What effect, then, does revenue sharing have on the overall progression of the tax system in the United States?12.“Even if the primary purpose of taxation is to finance government expenditures, taxation decisions cannot helpintruding into the realm of income redistribution.” Explain this statement.13.What does an economist mean by the “final incidence” of a tax? Under what circumstances might the incidence ofthe corporate income tax be borne by the consumer? By the stockholder?14.What effects might a progressive tax structure have on risky investment? Discuss. How might the existence of taxexpenditures alter your conclusions? What expenditures are relevant?15.It has been said that the sole purpose of taxation is to raise the money needed to pay for government expenditure. Isthat a true statement, or are there more dimensions to the design of a system of taxation in, for example, the United States? Elaborate particulars.16.Some people have suggested that the growth of the government sector of our economy has been generated mostlyby wars and depressions. If you interpret the statement broadly to include the threat of war and the occurrence of severe recession, is the statement accurate? Which functions of government are caught in this interpretation?Which are missed?。