This paper contributes to the debate about the optimal design of tax-transfer systems. Basedon the theory of optimal taxation, combined with microsimulation and microeconometrictechniques we derive the welfare function which makes the current German tax and transfersystem for single women optimal...

Given its significance in practice, piecewise linear taxation has received relatively littleattention in the literature. This paper offers a simple and transparent analysis of its maincharacteristics. We fully characterize optimal tax parameters for the cases in which budgetsets are convex and...