In this paper we briefly report some key data on educational expenditure and output in OECD countries and then turn to the motivations for public education. Public education can be important for equal opportunities and has a number of redistributional aspects within and between generations. We...

Restrictions on work hours are more important in countries with a large welfare state. We show that this empirical observation is consistent with the strategic effects of such restrictions in a welfare state in the context of optimal direct taxation in the tradition of Mirrlees (1971). Our...

Restrictions on work hours are more important in countries with a large welfare state. We show that this empirical observation is consistent with the strategic effects of such restrictions in a welfare state in the context of optimal direct taxation in the tradition of Mirrlees (1971). Our...

This Paper compares education investment in closed and open economies without government and with a benevolent government. Closed economies suffer from a hold-up problem of excessive redistribution, and governments use education policy as a second-best tool. Globalization that increases labour...

Incomplete information is a commitment device for time consistency problems. In the context of time consistent labour income taxation privacy reduces welfare losses and increases the effectiveness of public education as a second best policy.

We consider redistributional taxation between people with and without human capital if education is endogenous and if individuals differ in their perceptions about own ability. Those who see their ability as low like redistributive taxation because of the transfers it generates. Those who see...

Incomplete information is a commitment device for time consistency problems. In the contextof time consistent labor income taxation privacy can lead to a Pareto superior outcome and increases the effectiveness of public education as a second best policy.

This paper considers education investment and public education subsidies in closed and open economies with an extortionary government. The extortionary government in a closed economy has incentives to subsidize education in order to overcome a hold-up problem of time consistent taxation, similar...