The desirability of commodity taxation under non-linear income taxation and heterogeneous tastes

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Saez, E
• 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/S0047-2727(00)00159-6
• 发表日期: 2002
• 页码: 217-230
• 关键词: optimal nonlinear income tax; Commodity taxation

摘要

This paper revisits the Atkinson-Stiglitz result on uselessness of commodity taxation in the presence of optimal non-linear income taxation in a more general setup, namely when tastes are heterogeneous. This general analysis displays the key economic assumptions under which the Atkinson-Stiglitz result is robust. A small tax on a given commodity is desirable if high income earners have a relatively higher taste for this commodity or if consumption of this commodity increases with leisure. An application to the case of savings suggests that, even in the presence of optimal non-linear earnings taxation, there is a role for a supplemental capital income tax in the standard overlapping generation model. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.