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In Praise of Frank Ramsey's Contribution to the Theory of Taxation

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  • Joseph E. Stiglitz

Abstract

Frank Ramsey's classic paper "A contribution to the theory of taxation" gave rise to the modern theory of optimal taxation. This paper traces the literature that grew out of Ramsey's 1927 paper and assesses which of its key insights has proven robust. Though the path breaking work of Peter Diamond and James Mirrlees showed that Ramsey's results could be generalized in some important ways, other work showed that the domain of applicability of Ramsey's original insights may be more limited: changes in assumptions about the set of feasible taxes (not allowing certain taxes, or allowing a progressive income tax or non-linear commodity taxes), and in particular about the taxation of pure rents, incorporating more explicitly distributional considerations, and/or recognizing the important ways in which our economy differs from the competitive model underlying Ramsey's analysis all change the optimal structure of commodity taxation in important ways.

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  • Joseph E. Stiglitz, 2014. "In Praise of Frank Ramsey's Contribution to the Theory of Taxation," NBER Working Papers 20530, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    • Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:20530
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    2. Chugh, Sanjay K. & Lechthaler, Wolfgang & Merkl, Christian, 2018. "Optimal fiscal policy with labor selection," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 94(C), pages 142-189.
    3. Daubanes, Julien Xavier & Lasserre, Pierre, 2023. "How should the use of nonrenewables be taxed under a public budget constraint?," Resource and Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 73(C).
    4. Valeria Bonis & Luca Spataro, 2018. "Optimal income taxation and migration," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 25(4), pages 867-882, August.
    5. Junichi Minagawa & Thorsten Upmann, 2018. "Optimal taxation under a consumption target," Social Choice and Welfare, Springer;The Society for Social Choice and Welfare, vol. 50(4), pages 663-676, April.
    6. Bastani, Spencer & Blomquist, Sören & Micheletto, Luca, 2016. "Optimal commodity taxation with varying quality of goods," Research in Economics, Elsevier, vol. 70(1), pages 89-100.
    7. Diego Fernández Felices & Isidro Guardarucci & Jorge Puig, 2016. "El Impuesto al Valor Agregado en Argentina. Consideraciones sobre su incidencia distributiva y propuestas de reforma," Revista Actualidad Económica, Universidad Nacional de Córdoba, Facultad de Ciencias Económicas, Instituto de Economía y Finanzas, vol. 26(90), pages 29-38, Sept-Dic.
    8. Gahvari, Firouz & Micheletto, Luca, 2016. "Capital income taxation and the Atkinson–Stiglitz theorem," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 147(C), pages 86-89.
    9. José Mª Durán-Cabré & Julien Daubanes & Pierre-Yves Yanni & Xavier Oberson & Uwe Thuemmel, 2019. "The Taxation of Robots / La tributación de los robots / La tributació dels robots en sistemes de salut descentralitzats," IEB Reports ieb_report_2_2019, Institut d'Economia de Barcelona (IEB).
    10. Berliant, Marcus & Gouveia, Miguel, 2022. "On the Political Economy of Nonlinear Income Taxation," MPRA Paper 113140, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    11. Torben M. Andersen & Marias H. Gestsson, 2022. "Is full annuitization socially optimal?," Journal of Economics, Springer, vol. 135(2), pages 199-217, March.
    12. Torben M. Andersen, 2020. "Taxation of capital income in overlapping generations economies," Journal of Public Economic Theory, Association for Public Economic Theory, vol. 22(5), pages 1245-1261, September.
    13. Albertsen, Lau H. & Andersen, Mads & Boscán, Luis R. & Santos, Athila Q., 2020. "Implementing dynamic electricity taxation in Denmark," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 143(C).
    14. Kristjánsson, Arnaldur Sölvi, 2016. "Optimal Taxation with Endogenous Return to Capital," Memorandum 06/2016, Oslo University, Department of Economics.
    15. Helmuth Cremer & Firouz Gahvari, 2017. "Restoring Ramsey tax lessons to Mirrleesian tax settings: Atkinson–Stiglitz and Ramsey reconciled," Social Choice and Welfare, Springer;The Society for Social Choice and Welfare, vol. 49(1), pages 11-35, June.

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    JEL classification:

    • E62 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Macroeconomic Policy, Macroeconomic Aspects of Public Finance, and General Outlook - - - Fiscal Policy; Modern Monetary Theory
    • H2 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue
    • H21 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Efficiency; Optimal Taxation

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