In early 1979 Martin Feldstein suggested that the general approach of Mervyn King's Public Policy and the Corporation (1977) could be used to compare effective marginal tax rates for several different countries. Since the existing studies had employed different methods, thus making inter- country comparisons hazardous, we decided to launch a study based on a common method that might shed light on the significant economic differ- ences among the tax systems in four major economies that have experi- enced different degrees of economic success-the United States, the United Kingdom, Sweden, and West Germany. In this book we report the results of that enterprise, undertaken with the combined financial and human.
