This paper examines the optimal tariff structure under a revenue constraint. When a fixed level of tax revenue has to be collected from the tariff alone, no adjustment in tariff rates can achieve an efficient resource allocation, even in a small open economy. Hence, the optimal tariff problem...

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...