We study optimal taxation in the general extensive model: the only decision of the participants in the economy is to choose between working (full time) or staying inactive. People differ in their productivities and in other features which determine their work opportunity costs. The qualitative properties of optimal tax schemes are presented, with an emphasis on the role of heterogeneity in the equity-efficiency tradeoff. When the government has a redistributive stance, there are a number of cases where the low skilled workers face larger financial incentives to work than in the laissez-faire (negative average tax rates). In particular, this occurs whenever the social weights vary continuously with income and the social weight assigned to the less skilled workers is larger than average.
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Paper provided by Institute for Fiscal Studies in its series IFS Working Papers with number
W08/08.
Length: 29 pp. Date of creation: Nov 2008 Date of revision: Handle: RePEc:ifs:ifsewp:08/08
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Find related papers by JEL classification: H21 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Efficiency; Optimal Taxation H31 - Public Economics - - Fiscal Policies and Behavior of Economic Agents - - - Household
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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.:
MARC FLEURBAEY & FRANÇOIS MANIQUET, 2006.
"Fair Income Tax,"
Review of Economic Studies,
Blackwell Publishing, vol. 73(1), pages 55-83, 01.
[Downloadable!] (restricted)
Other versions:
Marc Fleurbaey & Francois Maniquet, 2002.
"Fair Income Tax,"
Economics Working Papers
0021, Institute for Advanced Study, School of Social Science.
[Downloadable!]