Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Author-Name: Fabrizio Bulckaen
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Author-Workplace-Name: Scuola Superiore di Studi Universitari e di Perfezionamento Sant’Anna, Pisa
Author-Name: Alberto Pench
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Author-Workplace-Name: Scuola Superiore di Studi Universitari e di Perfezionamento Sant’Anna, Pisa
Title: From Pantaleoni's «Teoria della traslazione dei trubuti» to the Thirties: The Legacy of the Italian Tradition
Abstract:The paper presents a survey of some original contributions by the most prominent Italian authors
in the field of shifting and incidence of taxation. Starting from a historical evolution of the
doctrine, attention focuses on those Italian authors who more closely anticipated the most recent
developments. Their contributions are grouped according to two original features,
namely the general equilibrium framework and formal rigour. Under the first heading we address
the definition of the problem given in general equilibrium terms by Sensini, Einaudi’s
criticism of the theory, embraced by his contemporaries, of the amortisation of a general tax,
and the remark by De Viti de Marco on the necessity to integrate incidence analysis with the effects
of the spending of tax revenues. The heading formal rigour encompasses two distinct features:
high formalisation, exemplified with works by Barone, and the methodological rigour of
the works of Pantaleoni and Conigliani, who derive general laws of tax shifting through strict
deductive reasoning from general economic principles. The dispute on the terminology to
adopt for tax shifting and incidence is also reviewed in this context.
The paper then examines whether these original contributions were known and shared in
Italy and abroad. It emerges that the authors reviewed here enjoyed a rather impressive reputation
abroad, in particular with extensive discussion and general acceptance of the contributions
by Einaudi and De Viti de Marco. It is also pointed out that the awareness displayed in Barone
and Sensini of the complexity and limitations imposed by general equilibrium analyses has
been interpreted since then as a justification for the use of partial equilibrium methodology.
Finally, in spite of the general equilibrium attitude found in most of the above authors, the
paper proposes a tentative explanation for the sparsity of present-day applied general equilibrium
works in Italy, as compared to the flourishing of such studies in English-language literature
after the pioneering paper by Harberger. In our opinion, the Italian approach has on the
one hand overlooked the theoretical improvement brought about by the Harberger model,
which yields the exact influence and relative weight of several parameters on the effects
brought about by any tax; on the other hand, from an empirical point of view, Italian studies
have emphasised the limitations of this methodology without appreciating the usefulness of
computable general equilibrium models, seen as the natural evolution of the Harberger model,
for the analysis of the effects of tax reforms in real economies.
Classification-JEL: H22, B3, D59
Keywords: Tax shifting; incidence and effects; general equilibrium
Journal: Il Pensiero Economico Italiano
Pages: 171-197
Volume: 11
Issue: 1
Year: 2003
File-URL: http://www.libraweb.net/articoli.php?chiave=200306301&rivista=63
Handle: RePEc:pei:journl:v:11:y:2003:1:8:p:171-197