"A Theory of Commodity Tax Reform under Revenue Constraint"

Despite the development of the optimal taxation theory , few of the practicing tax economists question the traditional wisdom that making tax rates flat will lead to a more efficient tax system. Practicing tax economists seem to have an intuition that even if the uniform tax structure may not be the most efficient, it may be a close approximation. The present paper survey the literature that provides theoretical under-pinnings for the practitioner's intuition. Also, the paper simplifies the statements and proofs of theorems in literature.