Top income shares in Canada

To the extent these findings suggest that the United States is the epicentre of the top share surge phenomenon, there would be the remaining question as to the cause of the surge in that country. [...] As the values of the accounts of individual managers were aggregated as part of the valuation of the firms themselves, CEOs rewarded by such valuations had a disincentive to question the underreporting of risk or the acquisition of more risk. [...] Indeed the 2.5 to 3 estimate of Saez and Veall is essentially the answer to the question as to how big the elasticity would have to be if tax rates were the sole explanation. [...] It may well be that much of the rest of the explanation centres on the United States for reasons that in my view are still undetermined.17 6. Potential Policy Implications of the Surge for Taxation Policy Without being able to pin down the cause of the surge, it is difficult to be definitive about its policy implications. [...] In any case, equation (1) and the ensuing discussion make clear the importance of the sensitivity of tax revenue e for the choice of marginal tax rates in any framework where the resulting tax revenue is a consideration.