This paper studies the effects of progressive income taxes and education finance in a dynamic heterogeneous agent economy. Such redistributive policies entail distortions to labour supply and savings, but also serve as partial substitutes for missing credit and insurance markets. The resulting...

This paper seeks to explain the significant variations in the social contract observed across nations. It shows how countries with similar technologies and preferences, as well as equally democratic political systems, can sustain very different average and marginal tax rates. Similarly, it...

This paper provides a historical and geographical perspective on the composition of households in present-day Europe. Many more people today live on their own than was the case in pre-industrial England, but there are some surprising continuities in household composition. In particular,...

This paper evaluates the relative impact of range of health, economic and structural factors on the employment experience of older male workers in Britain in the 30 years since 1951. It is based on a cross sectional analysis of data on age of workforce in 34 industrial sectors drawn from the...