Governments have long justified transfer payments in the name of reducing income inequality. The justification seems plausible and compassionate, if one takes an idealistic view of public and private incentives. Political authorities can simply take money from the wealthy with a progressive tax...

Considerable disagreement exists about how economic growth, taxes, and other policies affect the distribution of income from both a theoretical and empirical perspective. This short paper attempts to shed some light on the empirical debate about the role of tax policy in determining economic...