The Optimal Taxation of Height A Case Study of Utilitarian Income Redistribution

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Mankiw, N. Gregory; Weinzierl, Matthew
• 署名单位: Harvard University
• 刊物名称: AMERICAN ECONOMIC JOURNAL-ECONOMIC POLICY
• ISSN/ISSBN: 1945-7731
• DOI: 10.1257/pol.2.1.155
• 发表日期: 2010
• 页码: 155-176
• 关键词: labor; ability; tax

摘要

Should the income tax include a credit for short taxpayers and a surcharge for tall ones? The standard utilitarian framework for tax analysis answers this question in the affirmative Moreover, a plausible parameterization using data on height and wages implies a substantial height tax a tall person earning $50,000 should pay $4,500 more in tax than a short person One interpretation is that personal attributes correlated with wages should be considered more widely for determining tales Alternatively, if policies such as a height tax are rejected, then the standard utilitarian framework must fail to capture intuitive notions of distributive justice