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Bailouts and Redistribution

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  • Mikayel Sukiasyan

Abstract

What is the best macroprudential regulation when households differ in their exposure to profits from the financial sector? To answer the question, I study a real business cycle model with household heterogeneity and market incompleteness. In the model, shocks are amplified in states with high leverage, leading to lower investment. I consider the problem of a Ramsey planner who can finance transfers with a distortive tax on labor and levy taxes on the balance sheet components of experts. I show that the optimal tax on capital purchases is zero and the optimal policy relies mostly on a tax on deposit issuance. The latter redistributes between agents by affecting the equilibrium rate on deposits. The welfare gains from optimal policy are due to both redistribution and insurance and are larger the more unequal the initial distribution is. A simple tax rule that targets a level of leverage can achieve most of the welfare gains from optimal policy.

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  • Mikayel Sukiasyan, 2025. "Bailouts and Redistribution," Papers 2509.10933, arXiv.org.
    • Handle: RePEc:arx:papers:2509.10933
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Roland Benabou, 2002. "Tax and Education Policy in a Heterogeneous-Agent Economy: What Levels of Redistribution Maximize Growth and Efficiency?," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 70(2), pages 481-517, March.
    2. Korinek, Anton & Kreamer, Jonathan, 2014. "The redistributive effects of financial deregulation," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 68(S), pages 55-67.
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