IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/geo/guwopa/gueconwpa~03-03-16.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Redistributing to the sick: How should health expenditures be integrated into the tax system?

Author

Abstract

I study the optimal joint taxation of income and health expenditures in a model in which individuals face idiosyncratic prices for leisure and health. First-best redistribution based on potential wage rates and health status is not feasible. Within a class of quasi-linear schedules, the conditions for an optimal tax/subsidy system depend on the own and cross price compensated elasticities of demand for leisure and health in a way that generalizes the standard results from the optimal linear income tax literature. Numerical simulations are employed to illustrate the sensitivity of tax and subsidy rates to the correlation between health status and wages. In these simulations, the effective marginal income tax rate optimally increases with health expenditures. However, the welfare gain from optimally incorporating health expenditures into the tax system appears to be very limited, compared with the effect of properly designing the income tax itself.

Suggested Citation

  • Billy Jack, 2003. "Redistributing to the sick: How should health expenditures be integrated into the tax system?," Working Papers gueconwpa~03-03-16, Georgetown University, Department of Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:geo:guwopa:gueconwpa~03-03-16
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www8.georgetown.edu/departments/economics/pdf/316.pdf
    File Function: Full text
    Download Restriction: None
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Angus Deaton, 2003. "Health, Inequality, and Economic Development," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 41(1), pages 113-158, March.
    2. A. B. Atkinson, 1977. "Housing Allowances, Income Maintenance and Income Taxation," International Economic Association Series, in: Martin S. Feldstein & Robert P. Inman (ed.), The Economics of Public Services, chapter 1, pages 3-16, Palgrave Macmillan.
    3. Helmuth Cremer & Pierre Pestieau, 1996. "Redistributive taxation and social insurance," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 3(3), pages 281-295, July.
    4. BOADWAY, Robin & LEITE-MONTEIRO, Manuel & MARCHAND, Maurice & PESTIEAU, Pierre, 2001. "Social insurance and redistribution," LIDAM Discussion Papers CORE 2001041, Université catholique de Louvain, Center for Operations Research and Econometrics (CORE).
    5. repec:pri:cheawb:case_economic_development_abcde.pdf is not listed on IDEAS
    6. Mussa, Michael & Rosen, Sherwin, 1978. "Monopoly and product quality," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 18(2), pages 301-317, August.
    7. Armstrong, Mark, 1996. "Multiproduct Nonlinear Pricing," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 64(1), pages 51-75, January.
    8. Gahvari, Firouz, 1994. "In-kind transfers, cash grants and labor supply," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 55(3), pages 495-504, November.
    9. Anne Case, 2001. "Health, Income and Economic Development," Working Papers 271, Princeton University, Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, Center for Health and Wellbeing..
    10. Feldstein, Martin S, 1973. "The Welfare Loss of Excess Health Insurance," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 81(2), pages 251-280, Part I, M.
    11. repec:pri:rpdevs:case_economic_development_abcde is not listed on IDEAS
    12. repec:bla:scandj:v:81:y:1979:i:2:p:264-84 is not listed on IDEAS
    13. Stiglitz, Joseph E & Boskin, Michael J, 1977. "Some Lessons from the New Public Finance," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 67(1), pages 295-301, February.
    14. 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.
    15. Blomqvist, Ake & Horn, Henrik, 1984. "Public health insurance and optimal income taxation," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 24(3), pages 353-371, August.
    16. Atkinson, A. B. & Stiglitz, J. E., 1976. "The design of tax structure: Direct versus indirect taxation," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 6(1-2), pages 55-75.
    17. repec:pri:rpdevs:case_economic_development_abcde.pdf is not listed on IDEAS
    18. repec:pri:cheawb:case_economic_development_abcde is not listed on IDEAS
    19. Jean-Charles Rochet, 1991. "Incentives, Redistribution and Social Insurance," The Geneva Risk and Insurance Review, Palgrave Macmillan;International Association for the Study of Insurance Economics (The Geneva Association), vol. 16(2), pages 143-165, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Giacomo Valletta, 2014. "Health, fairness and taxation," Social Choice and Welfare, Springer;The Society for Social Choice and Welfare, vol. 43(1), pages 101-140, June.

    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. Janet Currie & Firouz Gahvari, 2008. "Transfers in Cash and In-Kind: Theory Meets the Data," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 46(2), pages 333-383, June.
    2. Stéphanie Maillot-Bugnon, 2005. "Assurance maladie et redistribution : le cas de l'arrêt maladie," Recherches économiques de Louvain, De Boeck Université, vol. 71(4), pages 427-443.
    3. Friedrich Breyer & Andreas Haufler, 2000. "Health Care Reform: Separating Insurance from Income Redistribution," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 7(4), pages 445-461, August.
    4. Cremer, Helmuth & Roeder, Kerstin, 2017. "Social insurance with competitive insurance markets and risk misperception," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 146(C), pages 138-147.
    5. Darío Maldonado, 2006. "Social security, income taxation and poverty alleviation," Revista de Economía del Rosario, Universidad del Rosario, June.
    6. Marc Fleurbaey & Giacomo Valletta, 2018. "Fair optimal tax with endogenous productivities," Journal of Public Economic Theory, Association for Public Economic Theory, vol. 20(6), pages 849-873, December.
    7. Raj Chetty & Emmanuel Saez, 2010. "Optimal Taxation and Social Insurance with Endogenous Private Insurance," NBER Chapters, in: Income Taxation, Trans-Atlantic Public Economics Seminar (TAPES), pages 85-114, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    8. Jung, Juergen & Tran, Chung, 2022. "Social health insurance: A quantitative exploration," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 139(C).
    9. VALLETTA, Giacomo, 2012. "Health, fairness and taxation," LIDAM Discussion Papers CORE 2012016, Université catholique de Louvain, Center for Operations Research and Econometrics (CORE).
    10. Valletta, G., 2012. "Health, fairness and taxation," Research Memorandum 017, Maastricht University, Maastricht Research School of Economics of Technology and Organization (METEOR).
    11. Giacomo Valletta, 2014. "Health, fairness and taxation," Social Choice and Welfare, Springer;The Society for Social Choice and Welfare, vol. 43(1), pages 101-140, June.
    12. Pierre Pestieau & Gregory Ponthiere, 2012. "The Public Economics of Increasing Longevity," Hacienda Pública Española / Review of Public Economics, IEF, vol. 200(1), pages 41-74, March.
    13. De Donder, Philippe & Hindriks, Jean, 2007. "Equilibrium social insurance with policy-motivated parties," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 23(3), pages 624-640, September.
    14. Mathias Kifmann, 2005. "Health insurance in a democracy: Why is it public and why are premiums income related?," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 124(3), pages 283-308, September.
    15. Justina Klimaviciute & Pierre Pestieau, 2018. "Long-term care social insurance: How to avoid big losses?," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 25(1), pages 99-139, February.
    16. Rochet, Jean-Charles & Carlier, Guillaume & Dupuis, Xavier & Thanassoulis, John, 2024. "A General Solution to the Quasi Linear Screening Problem," TSE Working Papers 24-1537, Toulouse School of Economics (TSE).
    17. Paweł Doligalski & Abdoulaye Ndiaye & Nicolas Werquin, 2023. "Redistribution with Performance Pay," Journal of Political Economy Macroeconomics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 1(2), pages 371-402.
    18. Hindriks, Jean & De Donder, Philippe, 2003. "The politics of redistributive social insurance," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 87(12), pages 2639-2660, December.
    19. DE DONDER, Philippe & HINDRIKS, Jean, 2003. "Policy-oriented parties and the choice between social and private insurance," LIDAM Discussion Papers CORE 2003064, Université catholique de Louvain, Center for Operations Research and Econometrics (CORE).
    20. Robin Boadway & Manuel Leite‐Monteiro & Maurice Marchand & Pierre Pestieau, 2006. "Social Insurance and Redistribution with Moral Hazard and Adverse Selection," Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 108(2), pages 279-298, July.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Optimal taxation; health subsidies; redistribution;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • H2 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue
    • I1 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health

    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:geo:guwopa:gueconwpa~03-03-16. 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: Marcia Suss (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://econ.georgetown.edu/ .

    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.