Research on tax behavior has recognized the necessity of changing tax authorities' approach from an enforcement to a service orientation. However, empirical investigations of the effect of perceived service orientation on tax compliance are scarce. The present study draws conclusions from survey...

A dynamic equilibrium model of an economy with underground trade is developed in which agents devote effort to search, building up networks of underground contacts. The model is used to illustrate dynamic responses to tax increases. The model is shown to be consistent with the stylized fact that...

This paper studies the design of indirect redistributive taxation and of corrective taxation in the presence of status goods, allowing for the possibility that illegal copies of those goods may be purchased on black markets (the phenomenon of piracy). Heavy taxation of status goods, despite the...

How is the optimal level of Pigouvian taxation influenced by distributive concerns? With second-best instruments, a higher level of income redistribution calls for a lower level of Pigouvian taxation. More redistribution implies higher distortions from income taxation. Pigouvian tax revenues...

An empirically based simulation model consisting of a representative consumer is constructed and calibrated, for the purpose of finding optimal commodity taxes for Norway. The model includes endogenous labor supply and cross-border shopping. Focusing on commodities exposed to cross-border...

Is it a sheer coincidence that the egalitarian Scandinavian countries have significantly larger government employment shares than the much less egalitarian United States? A positive correlation between equality and government employment share in the OECD indicates that it is not a coincidence....

This paper derives and examines the provision rule for public inputs within a two-class framework of optimal income taxation. If income redistribution policies must be designed under a self-selection constraint because the ability of any particular worker is private information, public input...

This paper presents a general-equilibrium model of environmental tax reform that introduces a health status depending on environmental quality and medical consumption, and tax deductions for medical expenditure. It distinguishes between two types of health effect: environmentally and medically...

This paper deals with public provision of a private good in a two-type model with optimal nonlinear income taxation. We assume that the wage rates are determined by bargaining between unions and firms, meaning that the equilibrium is characterized by unemployment. The results show that imperfect...

Nonlinear income taxes and linear commodity taxes are analyzed when people differ with respect to ability, high-skill agents have heterogeneous preferences, and neither individual abilities nor preferences are observable. We characterize pure income tax optima, which may be bunching or...