We highlight and explain eight lessons from optimal tax theory and compare them to the last few decades of OECD tax … policy. As recommended by theory, top marginal income tax rates have declined, marginal income tax schedules have flattened …. However, trends in capital taxation are mixed, and capital income tax rates remain well above the zero level recommended by …

literatures, is elaborated and then considered with regard to the problem of transition to a consumption tax. Other transition … issues are distinguished, and specific attention is devoted to rate changes under a consumption tax and whether owners of … preexisting capital are effectively compensated through higher net-of-tax returns due to repeal of the income tax. The analysis is …

This paper studies the effect of top tax rates on inventors' mobility since 1977. We put special emphasis on "superstar … Patent Offices to track inventors' locations over time and combine it with international effective top tax rate data. We …% inventors are significantly affected by top tax rates when deciding where to locate. The elasticity of the number of domestic …

In this paper we argue that very high marginal labor income tax rates are an effective tool for social insurance even … fiscal policies that achieve a desired degree of redistribution in society. We find that marginal tax rates on the top 1% of …

We estimate the elasticity of reported income with respect to tax rates for high earners using subnational variation … across Canadian provinces. We argue this allows for better identification of tax elasticities than the existing literature …. While our estimated elasticities are large, changes in tax rates cannot explain much of the overall long-run trend of higher …

Using micro-level data, we examine the effects of Russia's 2001 flat rate income tax reform on consumption, income, and … tax evasion. We use the gap between household expenditures and reported earnings as a proxy for tax evasion with data from … find that large and significant changes in tax evasion following the flat tax reform are associated with changes in …

, standard second-best results in basic settings are unaffected, except those for the optimal income tax. Optimal levels of …