De Gustibus non est Taxandum: Heterogeneity in preferences and optimal redistribution

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Lockwood, Benjamin B.; Weinzierl, Matthew
• 署名单位: Harvard University; National Bureau of Economic Research
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF PUBLIC ECONOMICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0047-2727
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jpubeco.2015.01.002
• 发表日期: 2015
• 页码: 74-80
• 关键词: Optimal taxation; preference heterogeneity; redistribution; sufficient statistics

摘要

The prominent but unproven intuition that preference heterogeneity reduces redistribution in a standard optimal tax model is shown to hold under the plausible condition that the distribution of preferences for consumption relative to leisure rises, in terms of first-order stochastic dominance, with income. Given familiar functional form assumptions on utility and the distributions of ability and preferences, a simple statistic for the effect of preference heterogeneity on marginal tax rates is derived. Numerical simulations and suggestive empirical evidence demonstrate the link between this potentially measurable statistic and the quantitative implications of preference heterogeneity for policy. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.