Specialized theoretical and empirical research should in principle be embedded in a unified framework that identifies the relevant interactions among different phenomena, enables an appropriate matching of policy instruments to objectives, and grounds normative analysis in individuals' utilities...

This Handbook entry presents a conceptual, normative overview of the subject of taxation. It emphasizes the relationships among the main functions of taxation—notably, raising revenue, redistributing income, and correcting externalities—and the mapping between these functions and various...

The Australian central government makes grants to the states and territories, three-quarters as general revenue subventions. The grants fund over 40 percent of the general government spending of the state, territory and local governments. Specific-purpose grants to selected states do the most...

We study U.S. state tax rules over the past 70 years to shed light on the determinants of U.S. state tax policy, generating three key results. First, we show that long-term tax trends are not consistent with Tiebout sorting and race-to-the-bottom competition models. Second, we document evidence...

This paper studies the optimal nonlinear income tax schedule at symmetric equilibria at which two symmetric states (or tax authorities) compete to attract more taxpayers from the other state. It differs from the existing literature in the sense that taxpayers' wages are endogenously determined...

This paper develops an expanded framework for social planning in which the existence of coercion is explicitly acknowledged. Key issues concern the precise definition of coercion for individuals and in the aggregate, its difference from redistribution, and its incorporation into normative...

This paper develops an expanded framework for social planning in which coercion stemming from the provision of public goods is explicitly acknowledged. Key issues concern the precise definition of coercion, its difference from redistribution, and its incorporation into social welfare...

We develop a model of Tiebout sorting based on decentralized income taxation, which allows for spillovers and imperfect rivalry in consumption of the publicly provided good. We identify three sources of welfare loss from decentralization: Imperfect redistribution, inter-jurisdictional...

Although tax simplification enjoys the attractiveness of being the opposite of complexity, it can have untoward effects as illustrated by the examples of a capitation tax, an international income tax regime that lacks rigorous base protection measures, and a system of negotiated tax liabilities....

We examine optimal taxation and public good provision by a government which takes reduction of envy into consideration as one of the constraints. We adopt the notion of extended envy-freeness proposed by Diamantaras and Thomson (1990), called λ-equitability. We derive the modified Samuelson...