This paper characterizes the optimal redistributive tax schedule in a matching unemployment framework where (voluntary) nonparticipation and (involuntary) unemployment are endogenous. The optimal employment tax rate is given by an inverse employment elasticity rule. This rule depends on the global response of the employment rate, which depends not only on the participation (labor supply) respon...

This paper examines optimal income tax progressivity when avoidance responses to taxation are important, and can be controlled at some cost by the government. A simple example shows that ignoring the fact that avoidance can be controlled that the leak in Okun’s bucket can be fixed can lead to misleading implications about the optimal degree of tax rate progressivity. The paper then generalizes ...

In a model with ex-ante homogenous households, income risk and a general earnings function, we derive an optimal labor tax rate and optimal education subsidies. It turns out that the distinction of risk-increasing or risk-decreasing education does not have much effect on the optimal tax rate, but is crucial for optimal education subsidies. Moreover, an optimal education policy allows for better...

If conventional instruments of strategic trade policy are unavailable, the system of foreign profit taxation and transfer price guidelines may serve as surrogate policy instruments. In this paper, I consider a model where firms from two countries compete with each other on a third market. I analyze optimal policy choices of the firms’ residence countries aiming at strategically manipulating the...

This paper derives optimal inheritance tax formulas that capture the key equityefficiency trade-off, are expressed in terms of estimable sufficient statistics, and are robust to the underlying structure of preferences. We consider dynamic stochastic models with general and heterogeneous bequest tastes and labor productivities. We limit ourselves to simple but realistic linear or two-bracket tax...

This paper uses a dynamic general equilibrium model to analyze and quantify the aggregate effects of the timing of the tax rate changes enacted in 2001 and 2003. The 2001 law called for a sequence of successive rate reductions from 2001 until 2006. The 2003 law made immediate the tax rate cuts scheduled for 2004 and 2006 under the earlier law. The phased-in nature of the tax cuts under the 2001...

This paper shows that the asymmetric information present in the relationship between the government and agricultural producers has led to persistent problems in the application of land taxes (Imposto Territorial Rural – ITR) in Brazil. The main result is that, when the asymmetric information is taken into account, some use of output taxes in the optimal tax scheme may be more desirable than a p...

We study the optimal combination of corporate tax rate and tax base in a model of a small open economy with heterogeneous firms. We show that it is optimal for the small country’s government to effectively subsidize capital inputs by granting a tax allowance in excess of the true costs of capital. Economic integration reduces the optimal capital subsidy and drives low-productivity firms from th...

An endogenous growth model is examined where individuals optimize consumption and tax evasion over time given the tax structure and tax compliance policy of the government. Applying methods of stochastic optimal control, the individual’s problem is solved and the rate of economic growth is derived. It is shown that for a given tax policy tax evasion spurs growth because it leads to higher savin...

We study the optimal combination of corporate tax rate and tax base in a model of a small open economy with heterogeneous firms. We show that it is optimal for the small country’s government to effectively subsidize capital inputs by granting a tax allowance in excess of the true costs of capital. Economic integration reduces the optimal capital subsidy and drives low-productivity firms from th...