Wage Subsidies and Distortionary Taxes in a Mobile Capital Harris-Todaro Model
Wage Subsidies and Distortionary Taxes in a Mobile Capital Harris-Todaro Model
复制标题
移动资本哈里斯-托达罗模型中的工资补贴和扭曲性税收
作者：
T. McCool
在制定消除或减轻劳动力市场扭曲影响的政策时，某种形式的工资补贴通常是最重要的选择之一。这些补贴的收入来源很少被视为一个明确的问题。这种遗漏对劳动力市场的哈里斯-托达罗（H-T）模型具有特殊意义，因为无论资本是特定部门的还是跨部门流动的，最常被推荐的政策是全面的工资补贴这有效地消除了对部分部门征税的可能性，而不是对其补充部门进行补贴——这是那些关注收入考虑的理论家经常青睐的一种选择。本文的下一节阐述了一个具有流动资本的小型开放H-T经济模型，这是本文分析的基础。第二节重新考察了三种工资补贴：对制造业工资的补贴；农业工资；或者对这两个部门都适用——假设补贴的资源是通过对利润全面征税来筹集的。这是CordenFindlay的传统，我们复制了他们的结果——尽管以更精确的形式陈述——这样我们就可以为以后的比较提供一个标准。如果这些补贴是由制造业的利润税（第三节）或进口关税（第四节）提供资金的话，接下来的章节将考察这些补贴对失业和资源配置的影响。由于H-T模型的次优性质，它将证明，如果收入受到限制，通常被认为具有扭曲性的税收本身可以优于全面税收，如果政策工具的种类有限，则可以成为非常有用的工具。第五节最后对各种补贴/税收方案进行了排名。
In prescribing policy to eliminate or mitigate the effects of labour market distortions, some form of wage subsidy is usually among the highest ranking options. Rarely is the source of revenues for these subsidies treated as an explicit issue.' This omission has special significance for the Harris-Todaro (H-T) model of the labour market, since the policy most frequently recommended, whether capital is sector specific or intersectorally mobile, is an across-the-board wage subsidy.2 This effectively eliminates the possibility of taxing one subset of sectors rather than subsidizing its complement-an option often favoured by those theorists who concern themselves with revenue considerations. The next section of this paper sets forth the model of a small, open H-T economy with mobile capital that is the basis for this analysis. Section II re-examines three wage subsidies: on manufacturing wages; on agricultural wages; or on both sectors-assuming that resources for the subsidies are raised by an across-the-board tax on profits. This is in the tradition of CordenFindlay, and we replicate their results-though stating them in more precise form-so that we might have a standard for later comparison. The subsequent sections examine the effects of these subsidies on unemployment and resource allocation if they are financed by a tax on profits in the manufacturing sector (Section III) or by import tariffs (Section IV). Owing to the second-best nature of the H-T model, it will be demonstrated that taxes normally considered distortionary in their own right can be superior to an across-the-board tax if revenues are constrained, and can be very useful instruments if it is the variety of policy tools that is limited. Section V concludes with a ranking of the various subsidy/tax packages.