(Post-)materialist attitudes and the mix of capital and labour taxation

Arbeitspapier

Social values shape policy outcomes. We examine the role of postmaterialism, a widely used concept in the social sciences, for the mix of capital and labour taxation chosen by a society. Following political scientist Inglehart, we define the degree of postmaterialism as the relative importance which individuals or a society as a whole ascribe to non-material values over material things. We incorporate this notion into a simple tax model for a small open economy. We show that a greater emphasis on immaterial values will lower the ratio of capital to labour taxes. Subsequently, we test our theoretical results empirically, using a panel data set comprising 17 OECD countries over the period 1981-2000. Proxies for the degree of postmaterialism are developed from the World Values Surveys. Their impact on the tax mix is highly significant and goes into the theoretically predicted direction.

Object Details

• Language: Englisch

References and Relationships

• Bibliographic citation: Series: Diskussionsbeitrag ; No. 404

Classification and Topics

• Classification: Wirtschaft ; Economic Sociology; Economic Anthropology; Language; Social and Economic Stratification ; Fiscal Policy ; Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue: General
• Subject: Culture economics ; social values ; postmaterialism ; taxation

Contributors, Places and Time

• Event: Geistige Schöpfung
• (who): König, Tobias ; Wagener, Andreas
• Event: Veröffentlichung
• (who): Leibniz Universität Hannover, Wirtschaftswissenschaftliche Fakultät
• (where): Hannover
• (when): 2008

Further information

• Handle: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/27213
• Last update: 10.03.2025, 11:44 AM CET