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Age Related Optimal Income Taxation

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Author Info
Blomquist, Sören () (Department of Economics)
Micheletto, Luca () (Istituto di Economia Politica)
Abstract

The focus of the present paper is on the intragenerational effects of nonlinear income taxation in a multiperiod framework. We investigate whether it is possible to achieve redistribution at smaller efficiency costs by enlarging the message space adopted in standard tax system (which only includes reported income) to consider also the age of taxpayers. Since it would be awkward to analyze an age related tax without taking into account the time-dimension, we use an intertemporal extension of the Stiglitz-Stern (1982, 1982) discrete adaptation of the Mirrlees (1971) optimal income taxation model. In the simplest version of the model we neglect the possibility of savings. This case can be interpreted as a situation with extreme liquidity constraints. It is shown that switching to an age related tax system opens the way for a Pareto improving tax reform entailing a cut in marginal tax rates for young agents. In a second version of the model we retain the possibility of savings and, assuming that the policy maker can tax interest incomes on a linear scale, we also analyze the optimal values of the interest income tax rate for the age dependent and the age independent tax systems.

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Paper provided by Uppsala University, Department of Economics in its series Working Paper Series with number 2003:7.

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Length: 54 pages
Date of creation: 07 Feb 2003
Date of revision:
Handle: RePEc:hhs:uunewp:2003_007

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Postal: Department of Economics, Uppsala University, P. O. Box 513, SE-751 20 Uppsala, Sweden
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Related research
Keywords: Optimal taxation; age specific taxes; tagging;

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Find related papers by JEL classification:
H21 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Efficiency; Optimal Taxation
H23 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Externalities; Redistributive Effects; Environmental Taxes and Subsidies
H24 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Personal Income and Other Nonbusiness Taxes and Subsidies

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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.:
  1. Cremer, Helmuth & Gahvari, Firouz, 1995. "Uncertainty, Optimal Taxation and the Direct versus Indirect Tax Controversy," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 105(432), pages 1165-79, September. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  2. Brett, Craig, 1998. "A note on nonlinear taxation in an overlapping generations model," MPRA Paper 8776, University Library of Munich, Germany. [Downloadable!]
  3. Louis Kaplow, 1996. "A Fundamental Objection to Tax Equity Norms: A Call for Utilitarianism," NBER Working Papers 4961, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  4. Louis Kaplow, 1989. "Horizontal Equity: Measures in Search of a Principle," NBER Working Papers 1679, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  5. Pirttila, Jukka & Tuomala, Matti, 2001. "On optimal non-linear taxation and public good provision in an overlapping generations economy," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 79(3), pages 485-501, March. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  6. Mirrlees, James A, 1971. "An Exploration in the Theory of Optimum Income Taxation," Review of Economic Studies, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 38(114), pages 175-208, April. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  7. J. A. Mirrlees, 1976. "Optimal Tax Theory: A Synthesis," Working papers 176, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Department of Economics.
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  8. Louis Kaplow, 2000. "Horizontal Equity: New Measures, Unclear Principles," NBER Working Papers 7649, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  9. Stiglitz, Joseph E., 1982. "Self-selection and Pareto efficient taxation," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 17(2), pages 213-240, March. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  10. Picard, Pierre M., 2001. "Job additionality and deadweight spending in perfectly competitive industries: the case for optimal employment subsidies," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 79(3), pages 521-541, March. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  11. Hammond, Peter J, 1987. "Markets as Constraints: Multilateral Incentive Compatibility in Continuum Economies," Review of Economic Studies, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 54(3), pages 399-412, July. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  12. Viard, Alan D, 2001. " Optimal Categorical Transfer Payments: The Welfare Economics of Limited Lump-Sum Redistribution," Journal of Public Economic Theory, Association for Public Economic Theory, vol. 3(4), pages 483-500. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  13. Ritva Immonen & Ravi Kanbur & Michael Keen & Matti Tuomala, 1994. "Tagging and taxing: the optimal use of categorical and income information in designing tax/transfer schemes," IFS Working Papers W94/05, Institute for Fiscal Studies.
  14. Hahn, Frank H., 1973. "On optimum taxation," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 6(1), pages 96-106, February. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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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.)

  1. Aronsson, Thomas & Blomquist, Sören, 2004. "Redistribution and Provision of Public Goods in an Economic Federation," Working Paper Series 2004:4, Uppsala University, Department of Economics. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  2. Sören Blomquist & Vidar Christiansen, 2004. "Taxation and Heterogeneous Preferences," CESifo Working Paper Series CESifo Working Paper No. , CESifo Group Munich. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  3. Sören Blomquist & Luca Micheletto, 2005. "Optimal Redistributive Taxation when Government’s and Agents’ Preferences Differ," CESifo Working Paper Series CESifo Working Paper No. , CESifo Group Munich. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  4. Peter Diamond, 2009. "Taxes and Pensions," CESifo Working Paper Series CESifo Working Paper No. , CESifo Group Munich. [Downloadable!]
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