Cazcarro Castellano, Ignacio, Rodrigo, Fernando, and Sanz-Arcega, Eduardo
Abstract
The aim of this paper is to contrast with quantitative statistical analyses whether the determinants of Spaniards' preferences over favoring wealth taxation behave similarly across different policy alternatives. To do so, and based on the literature review, we exploit the special questionnaire included in the 2019 wave of the Spanish Institute for Fiscal Studies Fiscal Barometer and carry out three empirical exercises, each devoted to one of the three corresponding policy alternatives under scrutiny. We also perform a robustness check contrasting whether those determinants are the same for a single policy that would comprise these three policies at once. According to the results achieved, corroborated by those obtained from the robustness check, the determinants of Spaniards' toward favoring wealth taxation rely on self-interest arguments and values and behave almost entirely in a similar fashion across different policy alternatives. Several policy recommendations arise. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
The eventual disconnection between voters´ preferences and specific policies is of special concern in decentralized countries, where any policy initiative might be simultaneously seen either as an erosion or a reinforcement of selfrule. The aim of this paper is to apply this framework to the harmonization of the Spanish Inheritance and Gift Tax (IGT). We econometrically contrast whether citizens´ living in Autonomous Communities (ACs) that led a tax race to the bottom regarding this tax or in those that exert a greater taste for political autonomy are more likely to oppose a more nationally uniform tax than the rest of Spaniards. Empirically, we exploit data from the 2019 wave of the Institute for Fiscal Studies Fiscal Barometer. According to our main results, citizens living in low taxation ACs and citizens living in some more pro-self-rule regions are even more likely to favor harmonization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]