A Unified Perspective on Efficiency, Redistribution, and Public Policy / Louis Kaplow.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Kaplow, Louis.

Contributor:

National Bureau of Economic Research.

Series:

Working Paper Series (National Bureau of Economic Research) no. w26683.

NBER working paper series no. w26683

Language:

English

Physical Description:

1 online resource: illustrations (black and white);

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, Mass. National Bureau of Economic Research 2020.

Summary:

Specialized theoretical and empirical research should in principle be embedded in a unified framework that identifies the relevant interactions among different phenomena, enables an appropriate matching of policy instruments to objectives, and grounds normative analysis in individuals' utilities and a social welfare function. This article advances an approach that both provides integration across many dimensions and contexts and also identifies which tasks may be undertaken separately and how such analysis should be conducted so as to be consistent with the underlying framework. It employs the distribution-neutral methodology and welfare analysis developed in Kaplow (2008a) and related work, offering applications to income taxation, commodity taxation, tax expenditures, externalities, public goods, capital income and wealth taxation, social security and retirement savings, estate and gift taxation, and transfer programs. It also explores welfare criteria and examines how their consideration enables the normative analysis of the taxation of families, heterogeneous preferences, and tax administration and enforcement.

Notes:

Print version record

January 2020.