Place-Based Redistribution / Cecile Gaubert, Patrick M. Kline, Danny Yagan.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Gaubert, Cecile.

Contributor:

National Bureau of Economic Research.

Kline, Patrick M.

Yagan, Danny.

Series:

Working Paper Series (National Bureau of Economic Research) no. w28337.

NBER working paper series no. w28337

Language:

English

Physical Description:

1 online resource: illustrations (black and white);

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, Mass. National Bureau of Economic Research 2021.

Summary:

Governments around the world redistribute to distressed areas by conditioning taxes and transfers on location. We show that when poor households are spatially concentrated, transfers from one location to another can yield equity gains that outweigh their efficiency costs, even when income-based transfers are set optimally. Expressions for the optimal transfer size depend on the mobility of households, the earnings responses of movers, and sorting patterns. Surveys find support for targeting tax credits to poor Americans who live in distressed places. A calibration exercise finds optimal transfers of the same order of magnitude as prominent American zone policies.

Notes:

Print version record

January 2021.