We argue that promoting education may be a means to reduce income equality. When workers of different skill levels are imperfect substitutes in production, an increase in the level of human capital in the economy reduces the return to education and, hence, pre-tax income inequality. The...

Nations persist and thrive when economic and social institutions complement each other; they weaken and die when these institutions conflict. The same is true for sustainable water management, which is becoming more difficult as rising demand, falling supply and intensifying climate change...

We analyze whether globalization affects the composition of public expenditures for education by integrating arguments from the Heckscher-Ohlin and the tax competition literature into a common theoretical framework. The model suggests that with increasing global integration, developing countries...

This paper analyses the national tax treatment of interestexpenditures of multinational enterprises in a non-cooperative world. It is shown that the international tax systemgenerally leads to distortions in the capitaldecisions of multinational firms. In contrast to the existingliterature on the...

In normative public economics it is crucial to know how fast the marginal utility of income declines as income increases. One needs this parameter for cost-benefit analysis, for optimal taxation and for the (Atkinson) measurement of inequality. We estimate this parameter using four large...

In normative public economics it is crucial to know how fast the marginal utility of income declines as income increases. One needs this parameter for cost-benefit analysis, for optimal taxation and for the (Atkinson) measurement of inequality. We estimate this parameter using four large...

The social cost of carbon is the central economic measure for aggregate climate change damages and functions as a metric for optimal carbon prices. Previous literature shows that inequality significantly influences the level of the social cost of carbon, but mostly neglects a major source of...

Tax harmonization entails a uniform rate that may not suit all governments. Harmonization can advance collective governmental objectives only if the standard deviation of tax rates is less than the average downward effect of tax competition on rates. Since an efficient harmonized tax rate undoes...

What are the distributional consequences of tariffs? We build a trade model with incomplete asset markets and households that are heterogeneous in their income, wealth, and labor skill. We increase US tariffs by 5 percentage points and examine several budget-neutral fiscal policies for...

Debate about U.S. international tax policy often emphasizes norms, such as capital export neutrality (CEN) and capital import neutrality (CIN), that relate to worldwide welfare rather than U.S. national welfare. While this focus may seem paradoxical, or at least surprisingly altruistic in a...