Convergingworld各国财政政策趋向于一致.docxVIP

Buttonwood梧桐树Converging world趋同的世界Countries’ fiscal policies are becoming more similar各国财政政策正变得愈发相似ALL around the developed world politicians are struggling to figure out the best way of balancing their budgets, at least over the medium term. But is it easier to get spending down or taxes up?所有发达国家的政客们都在试图找出至少能在中期内平衡预算的最佳方法。但是，削减开支或提高税收就相对容易吗？The charts show the recent record on tax and spending for America, the euro zone and the OECD as a whole. The spending numbers are slightly more variable and consistently higher than the tax take. Both tax and spending are subject to cyclical effects. Spending has a cyclical component because of the cost of unemployment benefit as well as the use of deliberate Keynesian stimulus. On the tax side revenue from corporate profits and capital gains falls sharply during downturns, although consumption taxes are more stable.这张图表一并展示了美国，欧元区和经济合作与发展组织（OECD，简称经合组织）在税收与开支方面的近期记录。（从表中可以看出，）虽然支出数据略有不同，但是支出数据总是高于税收金额。税收和支出都受周期性效应的影响。由于失业救济的成本和刻意推行凯恩斯主义刺激政策，支出具有周期性的要素。从税收一方来看，来自企业利润和资本利得的税收收入在经济下滑的过程中大幅减少，而消费税更加稳定。What is striking is the narrow range within which the tax take has moved. Since 1994 euro-zone taxes have not been below 44.6% or above 46.6% of GDP. In America the total tax take has been between 30% and 35% of GDP since 1970. Such stability may be partly due to efforts by reforming governments of the 1980s and 1990s to reduce taxes. But it raises the question of whether there might be some upper limit to the amount of tax governments can grab.一个明显的特点是，税收金额的波动是一个狭窄的幅度。自1994年以来，欧元区税收幅度的下限是GDP的44.6%，上限为GDP的46.6%。在美国，总的税收金额自1970年以来一直保持在GDP的30％——35％之间。这种稳定性或许部分是因为改革性政府在20世纪80年代和90年代为减少税收所做的努力。但是这产生了一个问题：政???所能收取的税收总额是否存在某个更高的上限。In a globalised economy people and capital can move to escape high-tax regimes—Frances new 75% top income-tax rate comes to mind—or base their operations in low-tax places such as Ireland. Tax competition is clearly not the only thing at work; otherwise it would not be possible for the euro