In this paper van den Noord and Heady express an optimistic assessment of the possibility for the tax design to improve both equity and efficiency. The authors present a systematic discussion of how tax systems distort saving, investment, labor and product markets. They draw a wealth of examples...

This paper studies how gradualism affects the welfare gains from trade, technology, and reforms. When people face adjustment frictions, gradual shocks create less adverse distributional effects in the short run. We show that there are welfare gains from inducing a more gradual transition via...