income distribution, taxation

This paper studies the optimal top income tax rate. Top income earners are modeled as managers operating a span-of-control technology as in Rosen (1982). In particular, managerial skills increase managers' productivity through both supervision and indivisible decisions, thus giving rise to a...

A large positive literature emphasizes the role of technological change in driving the demand for skill and talent. We consider the normative implications of such technical change for policy design.

This paper develops a model of optimal government debt maturity in which the government cannot issue state-contingent bonds and the government cannot commit to fiscal policy. In contrast to an environment with full commitment, there is a tradeoff between the cost of funding and the benefit of...