Comparing the Growth Effects of Marginal and Average Tax Pressure and of Tax Progressivity,

The paper compares the appropriateness and explanatory power of marginal tax rates, average tax rates and tax progressivity as measures of the impact of taxation on growth. Data are organized as a panel of 25 industrialized countries from 1970 to 1998. Contrary to previous empirical research, but consistently with theory, we find that marginal effective tax rates and tax progressivity have a negative influence on economic growth. This negative correlation turns out robust after controlling for state and policy variables. Average tax rates, instead, seems not to affect output dynamics.