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Optimal Capital Income Taxation and Redistribution

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Abstract

This paper studies the effects of agent heterogeneity on optimal capital income tax rates. In a two period model with arbitrarily many heterogeneous agents, we explicitly derive the welfare effects of taxation depending on the distribution of the agents' characteristics. In particular, we show that the sign of the optimal capital income tax rate depends not on the extent of inequality in goods endowments and productivities each by itself, but on a measure of inequality in their joint distribution.

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  • Ulrike Vogelgesang & Ulrike Ludden, 1999. "Optimal Capital Income Taxation and Redistribution," GK working paper series 1999-10, Post Graduate Programme "Allocation on Financial Markets", University of Mannheim, revised Apr 2000.
    • Handle: RePEc:xrs:gkwopa:1999-10
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    Cited by:

    1. Fabian Kindermann & Dirk Krueger, 2022. "High Marginal Tax Rates on the Top 1 Percent? Lessons from a Life-Cycle Model with Idiosyncratic Income Risk," American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics, American Economic Association, vol. 14(2), pages 319-366, April.
    2. Cremer, Helmuth & Pestieau, Pierre & Rochet, Jean-Charles, 2003. "Capital income taxation when inherited wealth is not observable," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 87(11), pages 2475-2490, October.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Optimal taxation; capital income; heterogeneous agents; redistribution;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • H21 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Efficiency; Optimal Taxation
    • H24 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Personal Income and Other Nonbusiness Taxes and Subsidies

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