Capital Gains Tax Cuts, Investment, and Growth

Congress currently is considering changes in the capital gains tax, including reducing the rate, indexing the rate to inflation, or some combination of reduction and indexing. These changes have been advocated on the grounds that a cut in the rate will stimulate investment and economic growth. In this working paper, Research Associate Steven M. Fazzari and Benjamin Herzon, a doctoral candidate at Washington University, present a theoretical analysis of the effect of a tax cut on the cost of capital, investment, and output