Review. In a mean-variance framework the optimal tax on risk-free returns is zero with constant returns to scale in private … investment, but positive with decreasing returns to scale, and vice versa. The optimal tax rate on excess returns to risky assets … is positive if the stochastic tax revenue is returned to the household by variable public good provision. If it is …

We analyze the distribution and taxation of top incomes in Germany during the 1990s on the basis of individual tax … returns data. We derive a measure of economic income from taxable gross income as reported in the tax returns. Thanks to … concentrated in Germany, more than commonly thought; (iv) although effective tax rates are significantly lower than statutory ones …

We analyze the taxation of top personal incomes in Germany on the basis of an integrated data file of individual tax … includes all taxpayers in the top percentile of the gross income distribution. We show that despite substantial tax base … erosion and significant reductions of top statutory marginal tax rates, German income taxation has remained effectively …

characterize optimal marginal tax rates and interpret them in terms of redistribution, insurance and incentive effects. The case of …We study optimal nonlinear income taxation when earnings can differ because of both ability and luck, so the income tax … has both a redistributive role and an insurance role. A substantial literature on optimal redistribution in the absence of …

government imposes an optimal linear progressive tax, commodity taxes are redundant. Hellwig (2009) generalized the Deaton … tax is Pareto-dominated by one with uniform commodity taxes and a reformed linear progressive income tax. We show that … progressive income tax and b) labour varies along both the intensive and extensive margins. Some extensions are considered. …

relies on the fact that tax evasion is more prevalent in the non-traded sector, which is dominated by services and the self …-employed. Heavy reliance on tax-based fiscal consolidations induces a reallocation of economic activity towards the non-traded sector …. Using IMF data for the period 1980-2011 we find that budget consolidations which rely more on tax increases than on spending …

We propose a theory of tax centralization and inter governmental grants in politico-economic equilibrium. The cost of … the local level. This renders the degree of tax centralization and the tax burden determinate even if none of the …

subsidies guaranteeing the same (pre-tax) level of income (achieved by the government supplementing the wage income of workers … receive political support unless it is supplemented by increased taxation of profits (after-tax profits are also likely to …

I analyze how lack of commitment affects the maturity structure of sovereign debt. Governments balance benefits of … default induced redistribution and costs due to income losses in the wake of a default. Their choice of short- versus long …