Determining an Optimal Tax on Housing Capital Compared with Non-housing Capital: Case Study of Iran

In oil exporting countries, the formation of Dutch disease is one of the major problems in economy. Dutch disease causes the outcome of non-tradable sectors (land and housing) to be increased compared with the tradable sector (industry and agriculture) and economic capitals transferred to less productive sectors. When facing with this problem, the solution is to reduce the profit of non- tradable sectors by the help of tax. In this paper, by using neoclassical growth model, determining an optimal tax on housing capital compared with non-housing capital will be studied. According to the results, optimal tax on capital depends on elasticity of substitution between consumption non-housing, housing and leisure times. Since Dutch disease causes the elasticity of substitution between housing capital and leisure time to be decreased, housing capital optimal tax should be more than the tax on non-housing capital. Based on the results obtained by simulating the model in Iran, the tax on businesses and labor will be decreased by the tax on housing profits.