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Poll Subsidy and Excise Tax

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  • Boyer, M.M.

Abstract

It is well known that modern governments are unwilling to use poll taxes because it corresponds to political suicide. Still, poll taxes are allegedly the most efficient form of taxation. Building on Eaton and Rosen (1980) and Peck (1989), the goal of this paper is to show a case where an excise tax levied on a certain insurance service is preferred to a poll tax. The preference for an excise tax is such that it would be optimal for workers if the government set the excise tax so high as to be able to give lump-sum subsidies (i.e., a poll subsidy) to all workers in the economy.

Suggested Citation

  • Boyer, M.M., 1998. "Poll Subsidy and Excise Tax," Ecole des Hautes Etudes Commerciales de Montreal- 98-13, Ecole des Hautes Etudes Commerciales de Montreal-Chaire de gestion des risques..
  • Handle: RePEc:fth:etcori:98-13
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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Peck, Richard M., 1998. "The inefficiency of the poll tax," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 67(2), pages 241-252, February.
    2. Bond, Eric W. & Crocker, Keith J., 1997. "Hardball and the soft touch: The economics of optimal insurance contracts with costly state verification and endogenous monitoring costs," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 63(2), pages 239-264, January.
    3. Peck, Richard M., 1989. "Taxation, risk, and returns to scale," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 40(3), pages 319-330, December.
    4. Dilip Mookherjee & Ivan Png, 1989. "Optimal Auditing, Insurance, and Redistribution," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 104(2), pages 399-415.
    5. Fahad Khalil, 1997. "Auditing Without Commitment," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 28(4), pages 629-640, Winter.
    6. Reinganum, Jennifer F. & Wilde, Louis L., 1985. "Income tax compliance in a principal-agent framework," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 26(1), pages 1-18, February.
    7. Picard, Pierre, 1996. "Auditing claims in the insurance market with fraud: The credibility issue," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 63(1), pages 27-56, December.
    8. Graetz, Michael J & Reinganum, Jennifer F & Wilde, Louis L, 1986. "The Tax Compliance Game: Toward an Interactive Theory of Law Enforcement," The Journal of Law, Economics, and Organization, Oxford University Press, vol. 2(1), pages 1-32, Spring.
    9. Townsend, Robert M., 1979. "Optimal contracts and competitive markets with costly state verification," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 21(2), pages 265-293, October.
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    ASYMETRIC INFORMATION ; TAXATION ; INSURANCE ; MORAL HAZARD;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • H21 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Efficiency; Optimal Taxation
    • G22 - Financial Economics - - Financial Institutions and Services - - - Insurance; Insurance Companies; Actuarial Studies
    • D82 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Asymmetric and Private Information; Mechanism Design

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