Abstract I study the optimal taxation of robots, other capital, and labor income. show that it is to distort robot adoption. The tax (or subsidy) exploits general-equilibrium effects compress wages, which reduces income-tax distortions supply, thereby raising welfare. In calibrated model, when robots are expensive, a subsidy optimal. As get cheaper, becomes them. Yet, reforming status-quo syste...

This paper discusses capital gains taxation on movable property in Switzerland which was completely abolished at the canton level in 1996 but is now under political discussion as a tax at the confederation level. Economic reasoning on the features of the Swiss tax system and empirical results for canton data on the capital gains tax in the past suggest that such a tax has a negative effect on r...

Dividends are taxed at both the corporate and personal levels in the United States. This double taxation of dividends may distort investment efficiency. Partly motivated by this consideration, the US Congress enacted the Jobs and Growth Tax Relief Reconciliation Act (JGTRRA) in 2003. This act reduced the tax rates on dividends and capital gains, and eliminated the wedge between these two tax ra...

To understand the role of evidence in tax policy design, this paper organizes the empirical analysis of reform under five loosely related headings: (i) key margins of adjustment, (ii) measurement of effective tax rates, (iii) the importance of information and complexity, (iv) evidence on the size of responses, and (v) implications from theory for tax design. The context for the discussion is th...

We characterize optimal taxation of foreign capital and optimal sovereign debt policy in a small open economy where the government cannot commit to policy, seeks to insure a risk averse domestic constituency, and is more impatient than the market. Optimal policy generates long-run cycles in both sovereign debt and foreign direct investment in an environment in which the first best capital stock...

This paper reviews recent developments in the theory of optimal labor income taxation. We emphasize connections between theory and empirical work that were initially lacking from optimal income tax theory. First, we provide historical and international background on labor income taxation and means-tested transfers. Second, we present the simple model of optimal linear taxation. Third, we consid...

The issue addressed in this paper is the optimal taxation of incomes earned tn the home economy, and of incomes earned abroad, when people can migrate. As a preliminary, the optimal taxation of home incomes when there is migration and no taxation of foreign incomes, is discussed. Then in a more general setting, we deal with optimal taxation of different kinds of labour when another kind of labo...

This handbook chapter reviews recent developments in the theory of optimal labor income taxation. We emphasize connections between theory and empirical work that were initially lacking from optimal income tax theory. First, we provide historical and international background on labor income taxation and means-tested transfers. Second, we present the simple model of optimal linear taxation. Third...

We consider a Rebelo (1991) type model of endogenous growth in which the environmental quality positively affects the rate of human capital accumulation and the environmental quality itself is positively affected by human capital accumulation and is negatively affected by physical capital accumulation. We analyse the effects of taxation on the steady state equilibrium growth rate in this model....

A long history of debate exists among macroeconomists regarding the degree to which public capital contributes to overall economic activity. Estimates of the output elasticity with respect to public capital range anywhere from 0.06 in early work by Ratner (1983) to as high as 0.39 in a widely cited study by Aschauer (1989). This elasticity refers to the percentage change in GDP induced by a giv...