Relatively little is known about the roles that taxes and transfers play in redistributing resources and providing insurance across individuals and across the lifecycle. We embed these alternative roles in a lifecycle model, allowing us to demonstrate what the tax and transfer system achieves...

Over the last forty years, rising national income has helped reduce poverty rates, but this has been accompanied by an increase in economic inequality. While these trends are largely attributed to technological change and demographic shifts, such as changing birth rates, labor force patterns,...

The authors highlight under-appreciated problems with implementing a Basic Income Policy, even in the case of simple cash transfers which, given the existence of redistribution, are preferable to the bureaucratic machinery necessary for rationing specific goods