Optimal redistribution: A life-cycle perspective

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Michau, Jean-Baptiste
• 署名单位: Institut Polytechnique de Paris; Ecole Polytechnique
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF PUBLIC ECONOMICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0047-2727
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jpubeco.2013.12.010
• 发表日期: 2014
• 页码: 1-16
• 关键词: Extensive margin; Optimal redistribution; retirement age; Social Security

摘要

In this paper, I characterize the optimal redistribution policy in a simple life-cycle framework with both an intensive and an extensive margin of labor supply. The extensive margin corresponds to the choice of a retirement age. The optimal allocation cannot be implemented in a decentralized economy by a standard non-linear income tax alone. It can however be implemented by a history-dependent social security system which redistributes resources across agents. A calibration of the model to the U.S. economy reveals that the retirement age should optimally be sharply increasing in productivity and that implementing the optimal life-cycle redistribution policy can generate large social welfare gains. (C) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.