Question

8. Government Services

a. How did the role of the state in wealthy advanced economies such as the US, France, Britain and Germany change, with respect to the scale and types of services delivered, between 1900 and 2010?

b. Discuss the size of the state (using tax revenues as a proportion of National Income), type and relative importance of expenditures it undertakes now compared to in the early 1900s.

c. Name at least four types of taxes governments can levy to raise revenue to pay for state expenditures.

d. What limits do globalization (specifically labour and capital mobility) and the existence of tax havens impose on the ability of countries to tax wealth and high incomes? What does this suggest for the distribution of tax burden between the different types of tax?

Answer 1