Discussion of the marginal cost of public funds with distortionary taxation are often cast in the framework of a one-consumer economy, while the main justification of distortionay taxes is that they are needed for distribution. This paper analyzes the issue in a model with heterogeneous...

Discussions of efficient environmental policy tend to recommend taxes rather than quotas on grounds of efficiency; a uniform tax will equlize marginal abatement cost between polluters. When polluters' actions are imperfectly observable, the distinction between taxes and quotas becomes less...

This paper discusses the problems involved in considering competition policy as a separate area of economic policy. Two problems are given special attention. The first is the doubtful efficiency gain from enforcing competitive conditions in one industry when other industries are not operating at...

The marginal cost of public funds is usually seen as a number greater than one, reflecting the efficiency cost of distortionary taxes. But economic intuition suggests that since green taxes are efficiency-enhancing the MCF with such taxes will be less than one. The paper demonstrates that this...