"New South? Not really. A compelling demonstration that the South's regressive taxation wreaks so much havoc that the federal government has no choice but to swoop in at great cost and attempt to band-aid all the poverty and dysfunction. The best argument yet for a new federalism that says enough is enough."—David B. Grusky, Stanford University “Taxing the Poor makes extremely important points that are not now—but must be—part of the American discussion of poverty and social policy. The authors make these points with fascinating details on the history of how we got to this place. Bravo to Newman and O’Brien for thoroughly laying out a politcal economy of taxation.”—Robin Einhorn, author of American Taxation, American Slavery

A groundbreaking history of why governments do—and don't—tax the rich In today's social climate of acknowledged and growing inequality, why are there not greater efforts to tax the rich? In this wide-ranging and provocative book, Kenneth Scheve and David Stasavage ask when and why countries tax their wealthiest citizens—and their answers may surprise you. Taxing the Rich draws on unparalleled evidence from twenty countries over the last two centuries to provide the broadest and most in-depth history of progressive taxation available. Scheve and Stasavage explore the intellectual and political debates surrounding the taxation of the wealthy while also providing the most detailed examination to date of when taxes have been levied against the rich and when they haven't. Fairness in debates about taxing the rich has depended on different views of what it means to treat people as equals and whether taxing the rich advances or undermines this norm. Scheve and Stasavage argue that governments don't tax the rich just because inequality is high or rising—they do it when people believe that such taxes compensate for the state unfairly privileging the wealthy. Progressive taxation saw its heyday in the twentieth century, when compensatory arguments for taxing the rich focused on unequal sacrifice in mass warfare. Today, as technology gives rise to wars of more limited mobilization, such arguments are no longer persuasive. Taxing the Rich shows how the future of tax reform will depend on whether political and economic conditions allow for new compensatory arguments to be made.

This book looks at the way we tax the poor in the United States, particularly in the American South, where poor families are often subject to income taxes, and where regressive sales taxes apply even to food for home consumption. Katherine S. Newman and Rourke L. O’Brien argue that these policies contribute in unrecognized ways to poverty-related problems like obesity, early mortality, the high school dropout rates, teen pregnancy, and crime. They show how, decades before California’s passage of Proposition 13, many southern states implemented legislation that makes it almost impossible to raise property or corporate taxes, a pattern now growing in the western states. Taxing the Poor demonstrates how sales taxes intended to replace the missing revenue—taxes that at first glance appear fair—actually punish the poor and exacerbate the very conditions that drove them into poverty in the first place.

Kemmerling deftly intertwines the efficiency theory of taxation with the political basis of taxing the working poor. . . This commendable effort in interdisciplinary study and the comparative analysis of taxation is an essential reference for undergraduate and graduate students, as well as faculty and professionals of economics, political science, and taxation systems of Europe. S. Chaudhuri, Choice Taxing the Working Poor is an inspiring read for political scientists and economists interested in the relationship between taxation and employment. Based on an elegant combination of econometric analysis and historical case studies, it shows that the alleged trade-off between employment and progressive taxation has political rather than economic roots. Philipp Genschel, Jacobs University Bremen, Germany What are the economic and political forces which generate different regimes of tax on labour? What are the implications for the labour market of these different regimes? And does globalisation bring a halt to tax-based redistribution? Achim Kemmerling tackles these and other important questions in this significant book. Malcolm Sawyer, University of Leeds, UK We have been distracted from the detailed problems of financing the welfare state by the tired old twentieth-century debate between libertarian tax minimisers and maximal socialist collectivisers. We have to move on. The welfare state has to be accepted and the detailed problems of taxation to sustain it have to be addressed. This well-researched and fascinating book addresses the political and institutional origins of different tax systems and points to viable strategies of redistribution and reform. Geoffrey M. Hodgson, University of Hertfordshire, UK In most industrialized countries the tax burden of poor people has increased dramatically over the last few decades. This book analyses both the political origins of this increase and its consequences for the labour market. Achim Kemmerling illustrates that tax-based redistribution and employment are not incompatible, and that the shift away from redistribution has not occurred on grounds of economic efficiency. He goes on to show that a long-term shift from capital to labour taxation has provoked conflicts of interests between workers that have weakened the political cause of tax-based redistribution. This interdisciplinary account of the political economy of taxing low wages explains the historical and structural origins of political tensions between different types of workers and their effects on the performance of labour markets. As such, it will strongly appeal to a wide-ranging audience, including academics, students and researchers with a special interest in political science, political economy, labour markets and the economics of taxation. Practitioners in the field of labour market, social and tax policies interested in the normative consequences of taxation for the labour market will also find the book to be of great interest.

Analyzes the effectiveness of the earned income tax credit in the United States and offers suggestions for how it can be improved.

Fuel Taxes and the Poor challenges the conventional wisdom that gasoline taxation, an important and much-debated instrument of climate policy, has a disproportionately detrimental effect on poor people. Increased fuel taxes carry the potential to mitigate carbon emissions, reduce congestion, and improve local urban environment. As such, higher gasoline taxes could prove to be a fundamental part of any climate action plan. However, they have been resisted by powerful lobbies that have persuaded people that increased fuel taxation would be regressive. Reporting on examples of over two dozen countries, this book sets out to empirically investigate this claim. The authors conclude that while there may be some slight regressivity in some high-income countries, as a general rule, fuel taxation is a progressive policy particularly in low income countries. Rich countries can correct for regressivity by cutting back on other taxes that adversely affect poor people, or by spending more money on services for the poor. Meanwhile, in low-income countries, poor people spend a very small share of their money on fuel for transport. Some costs from fuel taxes may be passed on to poor people through more expensive public transportation and food transport. Nevertheless, in general the authors find that gasoline taxes become more progressive as the income of the country in question decreases. This book provides strong arguments for the proponents of environmental taxation. It has immediate policy implications at the intersection of multiple subject areas, including transportation, environmental regulation, development studies, and climate change. Published with Environment for Development initiative.

The book covers the research on economic inequality, including the social construction of racial categories, the uneven and stalled gender revolution, and the role of new educational forms and institutions in generating both equality and inequality.