Optimal taxation with consumption time as a leisure or labor substitute

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Boadway, Robin; Gahvari, Firouz
• 署名单位: University of Illinois System; University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign; Queens University - Canada
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF PUBLIC ECONOMICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0047-2727
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jpubeco.2006.05.002
• 发表日期: 2006
• 页码: 1851-1878
• 关键词: consumption time; labor substitutes; leisure substitutes; optimal taxation

摘要

This paper studies the optimal commodity taxation problem when time taken in consumption is a perfect substitute for either labor or leisure. It shows that while labor substitutability affects the optimal tax structure, leisure substitutability leaves the classical optimal tax results intact. In the Ramsey tax framework with linear income taxes, whether the consumers have the same or different earning abilities, labor substitutes tend to be taxed at a higher rate than leisure substitutes with the tax differential being increasing in consumption time. This is not necessarily the case when one allows for nonlinear income taxation. (c) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.