How do the Tax Burden and the Fiscal Space in Latin America look like? Evidence through Laffer Curves

How much fiscal space do Latin American countries have to increase their tax burdens in the long term? This paper provides an answer through Laffer curves estimates for taxes on labor, capital, and consumption for the six largest emerging economies of the region: Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, and Peru. Estimates are made using a neoclassical growth model with second-generation human capital and employing data from the national accounts system for the period from 1994 to 2017. Our findings allow us to compare the recent effective tax rates on factor returns against those which would maximize the government's revenues, and therefore to derive the potential tax-related fiscal space. Results suggest that joint fiscal space on labor and capital taxes would reach 6.5% of GDP for the region, on average, and that there are important differences among the countries.

Cournot-Nash Equilibrium and Perfect Competition in the Solow-Uzawa Growth Model

The purpose of this study is to contribute to economic growth theory by introducing Cournot competition into the Solow-Uzawa neoclassical growth model with Zhang’s concept of disposable income and utility function. The Solow-Uzawa two-sector growth model deals with economic growth with two sectors with all the markets perfectly competitive. The final goods sector in this study is the same as that in the Solow model with perfect competition. The consumer goods sector is composed of two firms and characterized by Cournot competition. All the input factors are traded in perfectly competitive markets. The duopoly’s product is solely consumed by consumers. Perfectly competitive firms earn zero profit, while duopolists earn positive profits. This study assumes that the population shares the profits equally. First, we built the dynamic model. Afterward, we found a computational procedure to describe the time-dependent path of the economy and conducted comparative dynamic analyses of some parameters. Finally, we compared the economic performances of the model with Cournot competition and the perfectly competitive model.

Relationship between Labor and Economic Growth in Vietnam: Practice and Forecast

This paper analyzes the effects of the fluctuation in labor force and labor productivity on Vietnam's economic growth. Using the neoclassical growth model with data from the General Statistics Office, the study shows that when the number of laborers increases by 1%, the economic growth rate will raise by 2.78%. Combined with predicted figures on changes in Vietnam's labor force in the period of 2009-2049, the results of the study reveal in order to maintain the current economic growth rate, labor productivity needs to increase to 106.2% in the period of 2029-2039 and 111.6% in the period of 2039-2049. Vietnam is losing the advantage of labor force so its long-term economic growth will depend mainly on labor productivity. Improving the quality of labor is the driving force for economic growth. This depends on the combination of specific national policies and strategies, in which education and training policies are highlighted.

Pension Reforms, Population Aging, and Retirement Decision of the Elderly in a Neoclassical Growth Model

This study explores the linkage between the labor force participation of the elderly and the long-run performance of the economy in the context of a two-period-lived overlapping generations model. We assume that the old agents are heterogeneous in their labor efficiency and they continue working if their income exceeds the pension that can be received in the case of full retirement. We first inspect the key factors that determine the retirement decision of the elderly. We then examine analytically as well as numerically the long-run impact of labor participation of the elderly on capital accumulation and income distribution.

CAPITAL AND GROWTH

This paper develops and discusses a neoclassical growth model with two inputs: physical capital stock and combined stock of human and intellectual capital. The production process is subject to diminishing returns to capital in perfect markets, in sharp contrast to new endogenous growth models that assume increasing returns to capital in imperfect markets. The model finds that a high saving rate raises both transitional and steady state growth rates of output through increases in physical, human, and intellectual investments that augment labor productivity—a key extension of the Solow (1956)-Swan (1956) growth model. Additionally, the paper derives an optimal rule for choosing the saving rate that maximizes consumer welfare. Implications for growth policies are drawn.

Endogenous Education and Long-Run Factor Shares

We study the determinants of factor shares in a neoclassical environment with capital-skill complementarity and endogenous education. In this environment estimates of the elasticity of substitution between capital and labor that fail to account for human capital levels will be biased upward. We develop a model with overlapping generations, technology-driven neoclassical growth, and ongoing increases in educational attainment. For a class of production functions featuring capital-skill complementarity, a balanced growth path exists and is characterized by an inverse relationship between the rates of capital-and labor-augmenting technological progress and the capital share in national income. (JEL D33, E25, J24, O33)