Journal Article

How the U.S. tax system stacks up against other G-7 economies

Abstract: The recent financial crisis, Europe?s sovereign debt problems and the U.S. political dispute about raising the national debt ceiling have prompted fiscal policy debate about the size of government and the type of tax structure needed to fund public expenditures. ; Government revenue of the so-called Group of Seven (G-7) largest industrialized nations expressed as a percentage of gross domestic product (GDP) from 1970 to 2009 generally trended upward before stabilizing in the 1990s (Chart 1). Revenue averaged 27 percent of GDP in 1970, rising to 36 percent in 2009. Over the past four decades, revenue increased significantly in France, Germany, Italy and Japan, while remaining roughly constant in Canada, the U.K. and the U.S.

Keywords: Revenue; Taxation;

Bibliographic Information

Provider: Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas

Part of Series: Economic Letter

Publication Date: 2011

Volume: 6

Order Number: 12