IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/germec/v9y2008i1p41-64.html

Age‐Dependent Taxation and the Optimal Retirement Benefit Formula

Author

Listed:
  • Mathias Kifmann

Abstract

. This paper presents a comprehensive view of lifetime taxation including both explicit taxation through the general tax system and implicit taxation via the retirement benefit formula. Differences in productivity between individuals are unobservable, which provides a rationale for the use of distortionary taxes. It is shown that the optimal structure of age‐dependent taxation can be characterized by a generalized Ramsey formula. Furthermore, the paper derives the optimal retirement benefit formula in the presence of the general tax system and examines the compatibility with the financial stability of the pension system.

Suggested Citation

  • Mathias Kifmann, 2008. "Age‐Dependent Taxation and the Optimal Retirement Benefit Formula," German Economic Review, Verein für Socialpolitik, vol. 9(1), pages 41-64, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:germec:v:9:y:2008:i:1:p:41-64
    DOI: 10.1111/j.1468-0475.2008.00423.x
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-0475.2008.00423.x
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/j.1468-0475.2008.00423.x?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. W. J. Corlett & D. C. Hague, 1953. "Complementarity and the Excess Burden of Taxation," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 21(1), pages 21-30.
    2. J. A. Mirrlees, 1971. "An Exploration in the Theory of Optimum Income Taxation," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 38(2), pages 175-208.
    3. Michael Hoy & John Livernois & Chris McKenna & Ray Rees & Anthanassios Stengos, 2001. "Mathematics for Economics, 2nd Edition," MIT Press Books, The MIT Press, edition 1, volume 1, number 0262582074, December.
    4. Cremer, Helmuth & Lozachmeur, Jean-Marie & Pestieau, Pierre, 2004. "Social security, retirement age and optimal income taxation," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 88(11), pages 2259-2281, September.
    5. Assar Lindbeck & Mats Persson, 2003. "The Gains from Pension Reform," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 41(1), pages 74-112, March.
    6. Robert Fenge & Silke Uebelmesser & Martin Werding, 2006. "On the Optimal Timing of Implicit Social Security Taxes Over the Life Cycle," FinanzArchiv: Public Finance Analysis, Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen, vol. 62(1), pages 68-107, March.
    7. Klaus Beckmann, 2000. "A Note on the Tax Rate implicit in Contributions to Pay-as-you-go Public Pension Systems," FinanzArchiv: Public Finance Analysis, Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen, vol. 57(1), pages 63-76, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. repec:bla:germec:v:9:y:2008:i::p:41-64 is not listed on IDEAS
    2. Woodland, A., 2016. "Taxation, Pensions, and Demographic Change," Handbook of the Economics of Population Aging, in: Piggott, John & Woodland, Alan (ed.), Handbook of the Economics of Population Aging, edition 1, volume 1, chapter 0, pages 713-780, Elsevier.
    3. Gasche, Martin & Rausch, Johannes, 2012. "Auswirkungen einer Versicherungspflicht der Selbständigen in der Gesetzlichen Rentenversicherung," MEA discussion paper series 201212, Munich Center for the Economics of Aging (MEA) at the Max Planck Institute for Social Law and Social Policy.
    4. Louis Kaplow, 2011. "An Optimal Tax System," NBER Working Papers 17214, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    5. Spencer Bastani & Sebastian Koehne, 2024. "How Should Consumption Be Taxed?," FinanzArchiv: Public Finance Analysis, Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen, vol. 80(3), pages 259-302.
    6. repec:mea:meawpa:12263 is not listed on IDEAS
    7. Johann K. Brunner & Susanne Pech, 2012. "Optimal Taxation of Bequests in a Model with Initial Wealth," Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 114(4), pages 1368-1392, December.
    8. Jacobs, Bas & van der Ploeg, Frederick, 2019. "Redistribution and pollution taxes with non-linear Engel curves," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 95(C), pages 198-226.
    9. Abdoulaye Ndiaye, 2017. "Flexible Retirement and Optimal Taxation," Working Paper Series WP-2018-18, Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago.
    10. Stern, Nicholas, 1983. "Tax Reform: Income Distribution, Government Revenue And Planning," Discussion Papers 272812, University of Warwick - Department of Economics.
    11. Hans Fehr & Fabian Kindermann, 2010. "Pension Funding and Individual Accounts in Economies with Life-cyclers and Myopes," CESifo Economic Studies, CESifo, vol. 56(3), pages 404-443, September.
    12. Homburg, Stefan, 2010. "Allgemeine Steuerlehre: Kapitel 1. Grundbegriffe der Steuerlehre," EconStor Books, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, number 92547, March.
    13. Walter Fisher & Christian Keuschnigg, 2010. "Pension reform and labor market incentives," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 23(2), pages 769-803, March.
    14. Yukihiro Nishimura, 2025. "Supplementary Commodity Taxes, Labor Tax, and the Tax-mix," Discussion Papers in Economics and Business 25-08-Rev., Osaka University, Graduate School of Economics, revised Mar 2026.
    15. Spencer Bastani & Daniel Waldenström, 2020. "How Should Capital Be Taxed?," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 34(4), pages 812-846, September.
    16. Boadway,Robin & Cuff,Katherine, 2022. "Tax Policy," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9781108949453, November.
    17. Mervyn A. King, 1980. "Savings and Taxation," NBER Working Papers 0428, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    18. Antoine Ferey & Benjamin B. Lockwood & Dmitry Taubinsky, 2024. "Sufficient Statistics for Nonlinear Tax Systems with General Across-Income Heterogeneity," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 114(10), pages 3206-3249, October.
    19. Donald Bruce & Langchuan Peng, 2018. "Optimal taxation in the presence of income-dependent relative income effects," Social Choice and Welfare, Springer;The Society for Social Choice and Welfare, vol. 51(2), pages 313-335, August.
    20. Louis Kaplow, 2022. "Optimal Income Taxation," NBER Working Papers 30199, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    21. Charles Blackorby & Craig Brett, 2004. "Production Efficiency and the Direct‐Indirect Tax Mix," Journal of Public Economic Theory, Association for Public Economic Theory, vol. 6(1), pages 165-180, February.
    22. Boadway, Robin & Cuff, Katherine, 2022. "A generalization of the Deaton-Hellwig results on uniform commodity taxation," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 214(C).

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:germec:v:9:y:2008:i:1:p:41-64. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/vfsocea.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.