This paper considers an optimal income tax cum higher education policy. It shows that in the presence of an optimal income tax system higher education should be taxed rather than subsidized. Furthermore, income taxes should become less progressive when an optimal higher education policy is...

A trade union whose purpose is to raise wages above the competitive level may foster economic growth if it succeeds in shifting income away from the owners of capital to the workers and if the workers' marginal propensity to save exceeds the one of capitalists. We make this point in an...

This paper studies the short- and long-run effects of pay-as-you-go financed public pensions on productivity growth and discusses the possibility of a Pareto-improving reform. It shows that a reduction of those intergenerational transfers that are inherent in the leads to a permanent increase in...