COMMITTEE FOR ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT RESEARCH STUDY POSTWAR TAXATION AND ECONOMIC PROGRESS COMMITTEE FOR ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT RESEARCH STUDIES THE LIQUIDATION OF WAR PRODUCTION By A. D. H. Kaplan DEMOBILIZATION OF WARTIME ECONOMIC CONTROLS By John Maurice Clark PROVIDING FOR UNEMPLOYED WORKERS IN THE TRANSITION By Richard A. Lester PRODUCTION, JOBS AND TAXES By Harold M. Groves INTERNATIONAL TRADE AND DOMESTIC EMPLOYMENT By Calvin B. Hoover AGRICULTURE IN AN UNSTABLE ECONOMY By Theodore W. Schultz POSTWAR TAXATION AND ECONOMIC PROGRESS By Harold M. Groves SUPPLEMENTARY RESEARCH PAPERS PERSONNEL PROBLEMS OF THE POSTWAR TRANSITION PERIOD By Charles A. Myers THE ECONOMICS OF A FREE SOCIETY By William Benton WORLD POLITICS FACES ECONOMICS By Harold D. Lasswell Published by C. E. D. COMMITTEE FOR ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT RESEARCH STUDY Postwar Taxation and Economic Progress BY HAROLD M. GROVES Professor of Economics University of Wisconsin FIRST EDITION McGRAW-HILL BOOK COMPANY, INC. NEW YORK AND LONDON 1946 The Trustees of the Committee for Economic Development established the Research Committee to initiate studies into the principles of business policy and of public policy which will foster the full contribution by industry and commerce in the postwar period to the attainment of high and secure standards of living for people in all walks of life through maximum employment and high produc tivity in the domestic economy. From C. E. D. By-Laws. The studies are assigned by the Research Director to qualified scholars, drawn largely from leading universities. Under the by-laws all research is to be thoroughly objective in character, and the approach in each instance is to be from the standpoint of the general welfare and not from that of any special political or economic group. The reports present the findings of the authors, who have complete freedom to express their own con clusions. They do not purport to set forth the views of the Trustees, the Research Committee, the Research Advisory Board, the Research Staff, or the business men affiliated with the C. E. D. This report is the second volume on taxation as related to economic progress and the tenth in the series. The Research Committee draws on these studies and other available information in formulating its recommendations as to national policy for the problems examined. Its policy statements are offered as an aid to clearer understanding of steps to be taken to reach and maintain a high level of pro ductive employment and a steadily rising standard of living. The statements are available from the national or any local C. E. D. office. FOREWORD THIS study was undertaken to develop recommendations for a postwar tax system patterned genuinely in the public interest. The objective was not a blueprint for temporary transition policy but rather the specifications for a permanent tax structure toward which we should be working. While the book does illuminate transition issues, its main value lies in its contribution to perspective and understanding regarding long run problems. Fiscal-monetary policy is not considered extensively here. This subject will be dealt with in a forthcoming C. E. D. report, Jobs and Markets in the Transition, and in a later volume addressed to long-run fiscal problems. As a companion piece to Groves report, the reader will be interested in the policy statement by the Research Committee, A Postwar Federal Tax Plan for High Employment. This state ment, based on a preliminary study by Professor Groves of the relationship of taxation to incentives and to employment, as well as other materials, parallels closely Groves conclusions in this final study. The various research projects, completed and in process, that comprise the C. E. D. research program are outlined on pages 406-410. THEODORE O...