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Taxes and Capital Formation

Economists have long recognized the importance of capital accumulation for productivity and economic growth. The National Bureau of Economic Research is currently engaged in a study of the relationship between such accumulation and taxation policies, with particular focus on saving, risk-taking, and corporate investment in the United States and abroad. The papers presented in Taxes and Capital Formation are accessible, nontechnical summaries of fourteen individual research projects within that study. Complete technical reports on this research are published in a separate volume, The Effects of Taxation on Capital Accumulation, also edited by Martin Feldstein.

By addressing some of the most critical policy issues of the day with a minimum of economic jargon, Taxes and Capital Formation makes the results of Bureau research available to a wide audience of policy officials and staff as well as to members of the business community. The volume should also prove useful for courses in public policy, business, and law. In keeping with Bureau tradition, the papers do not contain policy recommendations; instead, they promote a better understanding of how the economy works and the effects of specific policies on particular aspects of the economy.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments
Introduction by Martin Feldstein
I. Individual Research Projects
1. Individual Retirement Accounts and Saving
David A. Wise
2. Rates, Realizations, and Revenues of Capital Gains
Lawrence B. Lindsey
3. Corporate Capital Budgeting Practices and the Effects of Tax Policies on Investment
Lawrence H. Summers
4. The Tax Treatment of Structures
James R. Hines, Jr.
5. Tax Reform and the Slope of the Playing Field
Patric H. Hendershott
6. Tax Rules and Business Investment
Martin Feldstein
7. Tax Policy and the International Location of Investment
Michael J. Boskin
II. Summaries of Additional Studies
8. Anticipated Tax Changes and the Timing of Investment
Alan J. Auerbach and James R. Hines, Jr.
9. Tax-Loss Carryforwards and Corporate Tax Incentives
Alan J. Auerbach and James M. Poterba
10. Tax Asymmetries and Corporate Income Tax Reform
Saman Majd and Stewart C. Myers
11. Consumer Spending and the After-Tax Real Interest Rates
N. Gregory Mankiw
12. The Impact of Fundamental Tax Reform on the Allocation of Resources
Don Fullerton and Yolanda Kodrzycki Henderson
13. The Value-added Tax: A General Equilibrium Look at Its Efficiency and Incidence
Charles L. Ballard, John Karl Scholz, and John B. Shoven
14. The Cash Flow Corporate Income Tax
Mervyn A. King
List of Contributors
Author Index
Subject Index

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