Taxation, Growth, and Resource Extraction: A General Equilibrium Approach“

Hans-Werner Sinn

European Economic Review 19, 1982, S. 357-386.

Abstract

This paper deals with taxation in a framework which is a synthesis between the neoclassical growth model, augmented by a (separable) sector of resource-extracting lirms, and the Fisherian intertemporal general equilibrium model: market forces bring about the neoclassical optimal growth path under laissez faire, but taxation may result in welfare-reducing distortions. The laxes studied comprise ad valorem, capital-income, and capital-gains laxes, where the tax revenue is assumed to be redistributed in a lump-sum fashion. Particular attention is paid to the second-best problem of whether capital-income taxation should be supplemented by capital­gains taxation.

First published in German as „Besteuerung, Wachstum und Ressourcenabbau. Ein allgemeiner Gleichgewichtsansatz" , in: H. Siebert, Hrsg., Erschöpfbare Ressourcen, Schriften des Vereins für Socialpolitik, Duncker and Humblot: Berlin 1980, S. 499-528.