We prove an existence theorem for a stationary perfect foresight equilibrium under borrowing constraints in a two-sector model with infinitely lived heterogeneous agents. The most patient agent holds all the capital in this solution. We also show that if the capital goods sector is capital intensive and capital income is increasing in the aggregate capital stock, then the aggregate capital stoc...

We analytically and quantitatively examine a prominent justi…cation for capital income taxation: goods preferred by those with high ability ought to be taxed. We study an environment where commodity taxes are allowed to be nonlinear functions of income and consumption and …nd that, when ability is positively related to a preference for a good, optimal marginal commodity taxes on this good may b...

We build a model where investments in human capital depend on the state of an individual’s social network. We show that correlation patterns between parents’ and children’s human capital investment and income depend on the structure of their social network. Heavier reliance on the social network increases the correlation of human capital investments and income across generations and decreases t...

Although globalization in trade and in particular in financial markets forced national governments to adjust their capital income tax regimes to capital mobility and to strategic tax competition since the mid 1980s, there is evidence that national governments facing this increased pressure have an interest in taxing corporate income at the national level. This interest is also true for EU membe...

We examine the relationship between economic growth, tax policy, and the distribution of capital and labor ownership in a one-sector political-economy model of endogenous growth with productive government spending Þnanced by a proportional tax on capital income. Our analysis shows that inequality in wealth and income can be positively or negatively related to the optimal tax rate. In either env...

This paper analyses the general equilibrium implications on public education policies in an economy with heterogeneous agents, human capital investment and capital-skill complementarity. Human capital is accumulated through private and public education inputs. Workers choose between being goods workers or human capital workers and are taxed to support public education. The government hires huma...

This paper provides a new economic interpretation of the well-known dynamic optimal taxation principle that capital income should not be taxed in the steady state. We show that the result is related to the minimization of distortions at the intratemporal margin. When every factor of production can be taxed at the optimal rate, capital income should not be taxed in the steady state. But when the...

The paper considers a two-country model of overlapping generation heterogenous economies with intergenerational transfers carried out in the form of bequest and investment in human capital. We examine in competitive equilibrium the transitory and long-run e!ects of capital markets integration. First, we explore how the regime of public education a!ects the dynamics of the integrated economy. Se...

This paper models a capital-exporting country that encounters difficulties in taxing foreignsource income, due to tax evasion problems. The paper compares the country’s optimal effective tax rates on the income from capital invested at home and abroad (including penalties levied on detected tax evaders). It finds that tax evasion abroad does not provide a justification for a relatively low effe...