Japanese Taxation on Income form Capital Theory and Evidence

本研究的目的在于从理论和实证两个方面考察税收对日本资本积累的影响。这项研究的结果已汇编成随本摘要一起提交的一卷。它由三篇论文组成，每一篇论文的内容可概括如下：第一篇论文试图从一个相当广泛的角度调查那些被认为影响投资的政策。这里略微强调了体制方面，并审查了从财政和货币到技术、规划政策的各种政策。这一部分的主要结论之一是，尽管人们普遍努力影响投资，但它们的数量意义无法被发现，可能除了20世纪50年代初。第二和第三篇论文分别讨论了资本收入的边际有效税率和平均有效税率。边际有效税率是从资本成本公式中推导出来的资本边际增量所应计的资本所得税率。平均税率是由纳税责任除以企业的经济收入得出的。主要发现之一是，加速折旧和免税准备金等典型税收政策并没有大幅降低这两个税率，但通胀和企业财务政策更重要。这项研究提供了战后日本资本收入税收政策的基本证据，其中一些可能是新的。然而，这一领域仍然存在几个值得进一步研究的主要问题：家庭储蓄和投资组合行为；税收对土地和股票等资产价格的影响；以及税收与国际资本流动的关系。目前的研究似乎为我们提供了一条了解这些重要问题的入门线索。

The purpose of this researcnh has been to find out the effects of taxation on capital accumulation in Japan both theoretically and empirically. The outcomes of the study have been compiled in an accompanying volume which has been submitted with this Abstract. It has been constructed from three papers and the contents of each paper may be summarized as follows.The first paper seeks to investigate in a rather broad perspective those policies that have been deemed to affect investment. Here institutional aspects are slightly emphasized and policies ranging from fiscal and monetary to technology, planning policies have been examined. One of the main conclusions in this part is that in spite of the pervasive efforts to affect investment their quantitative significance cannot be detected, except possibly for the early 1950s.The second and third papers deal respectively with marginal and average effective tax rates on capital income. The marginal effective tax rate is the rate on capital income which is accrued form a marginal increment of capital, and is derived form the formula of cost of capital. The average rate is obtained by dividing tax libabilities by the economic income of corporations. One of the main findings has been that such typical tax policies as accerelated depreciation and tax-free reserves have not reduced either tax rates much, but that inflation and corporate financial policies have mattered more.Basic evidence of postwar Japanese tax policies on capital income has been presented by this research, and some of which may be claimed to be new. However, there still remain several major issues in this field which will definitely deserve further reseach: household saving and portfolio behavior; the effects of taxation on asset prices, such as land and equities; and the relation between taxation and international capital movement. The present research seems to provide us with an introductory trail into these important problems.