Indeterminacy, Stabilization Policy and Returns to Scale: A Re-Investigation

Abstract

This paper examines whether taxation is effective in eliminating sunspot fluctuations by considering two separate model economies by which indeterminacy occurs for empirically plausible specification of the model parameters. In the first model where production exhibits social increasing returns to scale and private constant returns to scale, I find that i) labor income tax alone, even if the tax schedule is flat, is effective; ii) taxes on labor and capital income would be more effective with increased progressivity; iii) at each average tax rate, labor income tax is more effective than capital income tax. However, in the second model where production exhibits social constant returns to scale and private decreasing returns to scale, I find that labor and capital income taxes at all progressivity levels are ineffective in removing sunspot fluctuations.