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来源类型 | Working Paper |
规范类型 | 报告 |
DOI | 10.3386/w12859 |
来源ID | Working Paper 12859 |
The Excess Burden of Government Indecision | |
Francisco J. Gomes; Laurence J. Kotlikoff; Luis M. Viceira | |
发表日期 | 2007-01-23 |
出版年 | 2007 |
语种 | 英语 |
摘要 | Governments are known for procrastinating when it comes to resolving painful policy problems. Whatever the political motives for waiting to decide, procrastination distorts economic decisions relative to what would arise with early policy resolution. In so doing, it engenders excess burden. This paper posits, calibrates, and simulates a life cycle model with earnings, lifespan, investment return, and future policy uncertainty. It then measures the excess burden from delayed resolution of policy uncertainty. The first uncertain policy we consider concerns the level of future Social Security benefits. Specifically, we examine how an agent would respond to learning in advance whether she will experience a major Social Security benefit cut starting at age 65. We show that having to wait to learn materially affects consumption, saving, and portfolio decisions. It also reduces welfare. Indeed, we show that the excess burden of government indecision can, in this instance, range as high as 0.6 percent of the agent's economic resources. This is a significant distortion in of itself. It's also significant when compared to other distortions measured in the literature. The second uncertain policy we consider concerns marginal tax rates. We obtain similar results once we adjust for the impact of tax rates on income. |
主题 | Public Economics ; Taxation ; National Fiscal Issues |
URL | https://www.nber.org/papers/w12859 |
来源智库 | National Bureau of Economic Research (United States) |
引用统计 | |
资源类型 | 智库出版物 |
条目标识符 | http://119.78.100.153/handle/2XGU8XDN/570525 |
推荐引用方式 GB/T 7714 | Francisco J. Gomes,Laurence J. Kotlikoff,Luis M. Viceira. The Excess Burden of Government Indecision. 2007. |
条目包含的文件 | ||||||
文件名称/大小 | 资源类型 | 版本类型 | 开放类型 | 使用许可 | ||
w12859.pdf(419KB) | 智库出版物 | 限制开放 | CC BY-NC-SA | 浏览 |
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