This paper deals with optimal taxation in a two-class economy with two private commodities and labour. We derive optimal nonlinear income and linear commodity taxes in the presence of merit goods. We formulate merit good arguments via a pathology of individual choice. We assume weak separability between consumption and leisure and show that the standard optimal tax results are modified due to merit good considerations. We first find a subsidy on the merit good. Secondly, optimal income marginal tax rates are also shown to dioeer from the standard literature: it is positive on high-ability individuals and on low-ability individuals it is ambiguous because of a dampening eoeect due to merit good considerations. Finally, we derive the effective marginal tax rates.
Download Info
To download:
If you experience problems downloading a file, check if you have the
proper application to
view it first. Information about this may be contained
in the File-Format links below. In case of further problems read
the IDEAS help
page. Note that these files are not on the IDEAS
site. Please be patient as the files may be large.
Publisher Info
Paper provided by Université catholique de Louvain, Center for Operations Research and Econometrics (CORE) in its series CORE Discussion Papers with number
1998004.
Find related papers by JEL classification: H21 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Efficiency; Optimal Taxation H41 - Public Economics - - Publicly Provided Goods - - - Public Goods
References listed on IDEAS Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:
Cited by: (explanations, Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.)
Elodie Brahic & Valérie Clément & Nathalie Moureau & Marion Vidal, 2008.
"A la recherche des Merit Goods,"
Working Papers
08-08, LAMETA, Universtiy of Montpellier, revised Jun 2008.
[Downloadable!]