literature is that redistribution is best done centrally, and thus that an income tax is best used by the federal government …, rather than by state governments. Yet recent work suggests that states can effectively have some role in redistribution … a tool of greater redistribution. At the same time, the insurance function of a progressive income tax can still be …

provide a novel decomposition of labor income tax formulas into a redistribution and an insurance component. The latter is … capital tax is non-zero and trades off redistribution and insurance against savings distortions. Our quantitative results … bound on optimal taxes: even for welfare functions that do not value redistribution, marginal tax rates are positive for all …