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On the (Ir)Relevance of Distribution and Labor Supply Distortion to Government Policy

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Author Info
Louis Kaplow

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Abstract

Should the assessment of government policies, such as the provision of public goods and the control of externalities, deviate from first-best principles to account for distributive effects and the distortionary cost of labor income taxation? For example, is the optimal extent of public goods provision smaller than indicated by the Samuelson rule because finance is distortionary? Or should environmental regulations fail to internalize externalities fully if the incidence of the regulations is regressive? It is suggested that these questions are best addressed by considering distribution-neutral implementation, in which budget balance is achieved by choosing an adjustment to the income tax that offsets the distributive impact of the policy in question. In basic cases, both distribution and labor supply distortion are moot because the target policy and the tax adjustment produce offsetting effects on each. Thus, traditional first-best principles provide good benchmarks for policy analysis after all. Moreover, even when actual implementation will not be distribution neutral in aggregate, distribution-neutral policy analysis has many conceptual and practical virtues that render it quite useful to investigators.

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Publisher Info
Article provided by American Economic Association in its journal Journal of Economic Perspectives.

Volume (Year): 18 (2004)
Issue (Month): 4 (Fall)
Pages: 159-175
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Handle: RePEc:aea:jecper:v:18:y:2004:i:4:p:159-175

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  1. Louis Kaplow, 2004. "On the Undesirability of Commodity Taxation Even When Income Taxation is Not Optimal," NBER Working Papers 10407, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  2. Don Fullerton, 2008. "Distributional Effects of Environmental and Energy Policy: An Introduction," NBER Working Papers 14241, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  3. Claus Thustrup Kreiner & Nicolaj Verdelin, 2009. "Optimal Provision of Public Goods: A Synthesis," CESifo Working Paper Series CESifo Working Paper No. , CESifo Group Munich. [Downloadable!]
  4. Parry, Ian W.H. & Laxminarayan, Ramanan & West, Sarah E., 2006. "Fiscal and Externality Rationales for Alcohol Taxes," Discussion Papers dp-06-51, Resources For the Future. [Downloadable!]
  5. Parry, Ian W.H., 2006. "Are the Costs of Reducing Greenhouse Gases from Passenger Vehicles Negative?," Discussion Papers dp-06-14-rev, Resources For the Future. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  6. Ian Parry & Hilary Sigman & Margaret Walls & Roberton Williams, 2005. "The Incidence of Pollution Control Policies," Departmental Working Papers 200504, Rutgers University, Department of Economics. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  7. Louis Kaplow, 2006. "Optimal Control of Externalities in the Presence of Income Taxation," NBER Working Papers 12339, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  8. Martin, Will & Anderson, James E., 2005. "Costs of taxation and the benefits of public goods : the role of income effects," Policy Research Working Paper Series 3700, The World Bank. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  9. Agell, Jonas & Persson, Mats, 2006. "Bevolent Planners, Malevolent Dictators and Democratic Voters," Research Papers in Economics 2006:6, Stockholm University, Department of Economics. [Downloadable!]
  10. Claus Thustrup Kreiner & Nicolaj Verdelin, 2008. "Optimal Provision of Public Goods: A Synthesis," EPRU Working Paper Series 08-05, Economic Policy Research Unit (EPRU), University of Copenhagen. Department of Economics. [Downloadable!]
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