Externalities and optimal taxation

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Cremer, H; Gahvari, F; Ladoux, N
• 署名单位: University of Illinois System; University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign; Universite de Toulouse; Universite de Toulouse
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF PUBLIC ECONOMICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0047-2727
• DOI: 10.1016/S0047-2727(98)00039-5
• 发表日期: 1998
• 页码: 343-364
• 关键词: Optimal taxation; externalities; environmental levies; second-best; informational structure

摘要

This paper reexamines the optimal tax design problem (income and commodities) in the presence of externalities. The nature of the second-best, and the choice of the tax instruments, are motivated by the informational structure in the economy. The main results are: (i) environmental levies (linear or nonlinear) differ in formula from Pigouvian taxes by the expressions for the optimal tax on private goods; (ii) externalities do not affect commodity tax formulas (linear and nonlinear) for private goods; (iii) externalities do not affect the income tax structure if commodity taxes are nonlinear and affect it if commodity taxes are linear; and (iv) a general income tax plus strictly Pigouvian taxes are sufficient for efficient taxation if individuals of different types have identical marginal rates of substitution (at any given consumption bundle). (C) 1998 Elsevier Science S.A. All rights reserved.