Benabou (2002) strengthens the so-called Efficient Redistribution Hypothesis (ERH) by demonstrating how income redistribution can promote growth and welfare by mitigating economic waste from resource misallocation that is caused by credit market frictions to production, which is subject to...

Parental education largely determines a child's opportunity to learn. However, a higher level of trust and a higher frequency of social interactions between adults with significantly different educational attainments shrinks the knowledge-gaps among the adults, making their human capital more...

Financial instability has increased for many economies in the face of greater capital mobility. Eliminating capital flows, especially portfolio investment flows, may reduce volatility, but it could also result in domestic capital constraints. To overcome this dilemma, policymakers may consider...

This paper computes the optimal progressivity of the income tax code in a dynamic general equilibrium model with household heterogeneity in which uninsurable labor productivity risk gives rise to a nontrivial income and wealth distribution. A progressive tax system serves as a partial substitute...

In this paper we quantitatively characterize the optimal capital and labor income tax in an overlapping generations model with idiosyncratic, uninsurable income shocks, where households also differ permanently with respect to their ability to generate income. The welfare criterion we employ is...

We quantify the fiscal multipliers in response to the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) of 2009. We extend the benchmark Smets-Wouters (Smets and Wouters, 2007) New Keynesian model, allowing for credit-constrained households, the zero lower bound, government capital and distortionary...

Die Kirchen fordern immer wieder eine gerechtere Verteilung ein. Bei der Besteuerung ihrer eigenen Mitglieder weichen sie jedoch regelmäßig von der durch den Einkommensteuertarif vorgegebenen durchgängigen Progression ab: bei der Kirchensteuer gibt es regional unterschiedliche Kappungssätze....

In this paper we use a panel of 189 countries to describe the salient trends that have emerged in national personal income tax systems spanning the twenty five year period from 1981 to 2005. Using complete national income tax schedules, we calculate actual average and marginal tax rates at...

We use micro data from the U.S. Internal Revenue Service to document how households' tax liabilities vary with income, marital status and the number of dependents. We report facts on the distributions of average and marginal taxes, properties of the joint distributions of taxes paid and income,...

I document a strong negative cross-country correlation between intergenerational earnings persistence and tax progressivity, and between intergenerational earnings persistence and public expenditure on tertiary education. To explain these correlations I then develop an intergenerational...