This paper develops a theory in which households prepare for future education by adjusting the number of children they intend to raise. Income inequality lowers output per worker only if the inequality is attributed in some part to unexpected disturbances after childbirth

This paper develops a theory in which households prepare for future education by adjusting the number of children they intend to raise. Income inequality lowers output per worker only if the inequality is attributed in some part to unexpected disturbances after childbirth. -- Fertility ; Lock-in...

This paper addresses the problem of the normative evaluation of income tax systems and income tax reforms. While most of the existing criteria, framed in the utilitarian tradition, are uniquely based on information about individual incomes, this paper, building upon the opportunity egalitarian...

How to explain rising income and wealth inequality? We build an original heterogeneous-agent model with three key features: (i) an explicit link between firm's market power and top income shares, (ii) a granular representation of the tax and transfer system, and (iii) three assets with...

I study how the distribution of wealth influences the governmentś response to a banking crisis and the fragility of the financial system. When the wealth distribution is unequal, the governmentś bailout policy during a systemic crisis will be shaped in part by distributional concerns. In...

Research has not yet been undertaken on the optimal level of urbanization, notwithstanding the pioneering work of Au and Henderson (2006) on optimal urban concentration. This paper develops two-sector general equilibrium models of urbanization, with and without equity consideration,...

The public health measures implemented by governments to limit the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic will produce significant economic consequences that are likely to exacerbate social and economic inequalities. In this paper we provide a framework to analyse how income inequality, besides other...

Reformers often argue that the welfare benefits of ameliorating inequality are worth the cost in reduced economic efficiency that supposedly results from associated increases in government spending. This paper argues that these arguments are mostly misguided. Focusing solely on the marginal...

The public health measures implemented by governments to limit the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic will produce significant economic consequences that are likely to exacerbate social and economic inequalities. In this paper we provide a framework to analyse how income inequality, besides other...

I study how the distribution of wealth influences the government's response to a banking crisis and the fragility of the financial system. When the wealth distribution is unequal, the government's bailout policy during a systemic crisis will be shaped in part by distributional concerns. In...