Tax-Based Income Policies: A Cure for Inflation?

Robert B. Shortly was a chartered accountant in Toronto.

With inflation being a major concern throughout the world, there have been many views as to how to deal with it, ranging from the doom-and-gloom scenarios, to 6 and 5 policies, to wage and price controls of considerable complexity. Recently a new alternative, called tax-based income policies (TIP), has been put forth. In essence, it is a scheme for using the tax system to reward or punish those involved in the setting of wages and prices.

The purpose of this book is to examine the serious attempt which economists are making to analyze alternatives to wage and price controls and to do so against a backdrop of historical experience with controls. While the book is published by the Fraser Institute, the work of the authors contained was independently determined and does not necessarily conform to the views of the Institute.

For any student of economics and for those having an interest in economics, this is a useful book to read. It is unfortunate that while the articles are reasonably non-technical, the non-economist will not read the material — and yet this is the person who would benefit the most.