This paper examines optimal factor taxation when output is produced from labour and capital and some (or all) households save capital. It is shown that there is a reputational equilibrium in which the government has no incentive to change its announced tax policies. In this equilibrium, the Judd-Chamley assertion that the tax on capital income tends to zero in the limit holds. This is independe...

This paper explores the rationale for unemployment beneÞts as a complement to optimal non-linear income taxation. High-skilled workers and low-skilled workers face different exogenous risks of being unemployed. As long as the low-skilled workers face a higher unemployment risk, we Þnd that there is a case for over-insuring the lowskilled, hence the unemployment beneÞts of the low-skilled should...

In a model in which agents di↵er in wages and preferences over labor time–consumption bundles, we study labor income tax schemes that alleviate poverty. To avoid conflict with individual well-being, we require redistribution to take place between agents on both sides of the poverty line provided they have the same labor time. This requirement is combined with e ciency and robustness properties....

Non-strategic firms with rational expectations make investment and emissions decisions. The investment rule depends on firms’ beliefs about future emissions policies. We compare emissions taxes and quotas when the (strategic) regulator and (nonstrategic) firms have asymmetric information about abatement costs, and all agents use Markov Perfect decision rules. Emissions taxes create a secondary ...

ABSTRACT The limitation of executive compensation has been a matter public and policy debate for at least 20 years. We examine regulatory action in Austria 2014 where the tax deductibility total value is unavoidably limited. find no average effects on growth or composition executives’ pay. However, limit affects managers firms with low bargaining power strong corporate governance, indicating th...

We show that a calibrated life cycle two-earner household model with endogenous labor supply can rationalize the extent of consumption insurance against shocks to male and female wages, as estimated empirically by Blundell, Pistaferri, Saporta-Eksten (2016) in US data. In model, 35 percent 18 permanent wage pass through consumption, compared empirical estimates 32 19 percent. Most is provided p...

International donors invest billions of dollars to conserve ecosystems in low-income nations. The most common investments aim to encourage commercial activities, such as ecotourism, that indirectly generate ecosystem protection as a joint product. We demonstrate that paying for ecosystem protection directly can be far more cost-effective. Although direct-payment initiatives have imposing instit...

This paper studies how optimal wage tax conclusions from the classic two-period life cycle model of human capital accumulation are affected by endogenizing the number of taxpaying workers. In the absence of a corrective policy, young individuals underinvest in human capital from a social perspective because tax premiums for transfers to nonworkers are not actuarially adjusted downward for human...

Inheritances create a second distinguishing characteristic of individuals, in addition to earning abilities. We incorporate this fact into an optimum income taxation model with bequests motivated by joy of giving, and show that a tax on inherited wealth is equivalent to a tax on expenditures, i. e. to a uniform tax on consumption plus bequests. These taxes have a positive effect on intertempora...

Happy Taxpayers? Income Taxation and Well-Being This paper offers a first empirical investigation of how labor taxation (income and payroll taxes) affects individuals' well-being. For identification, we exploit exogenous variation in tax rules over time and across demographic groups using 26 years of German panel data. We find that the tax effect on subjective well-being is significant and posi...