文章基本信息

标题：Does the tax system encourage too much education?
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作者：Annette Alstadsæter
期刊名称：Discussion Papers / Norwegian School of Economics and Business Administration
印刷版ISSN：0804-6824
出版年度：2000
出版社：Bergen
摘要：The Nordic countries have dual income taxation, with a proportional tax on capital inco meand a progressive tax on labour inc ome. Nie lsen and S.re nsen (1997) a rgue that thi s asy m-metric treatment of the two types of income can b e defended on pure e￠ciency grounds. Theprogressiv ity of the labour income tax serves to reduc e the private return to human capitalinvestment, thereby o¤setti ng the tendency of a proportional com prehensive income tax todiscri minate in favour of such investments. They use a sim ple overlappi ng genera tions mo delin a small open eco nomy. The consumer faces a trade-o¤ be twee n investm ents in …nancial a ndhuman capita l, and education serves only as a m eans to shift c onsumption between periods.The prese nt paper expands this model by inc luding the intrinsic va lue of educati on as a mo-tivation behind getting education. I …nd that the argument in favour of dual income taxationis strengthene d. A com prehensive proportional income tax works as a tax subsidy on humancapital investments, and it reduces the price of education as a consumption good. This mayexplain the puzzle why so many choose to get higher education in the Nordic countries, wherethe wage return to education is modest. By introducing a prog ressive labour income tax, thetotal return to educatio n is reduced. Hence the e￠ciency distortion in the capital market maybe partly neutralised
关键词：Dual income tax; O ptimal income taxation; Human capital investment; Intr insic;value of education