We investigate how the optimal nonlinear income tax schedule is modified when taxpayers can evade taxation by emigrating. We consider two symmetric countries with Maximin governments. Workers choose their labor supply along the intensive margin. The skill distribution is continuous, and, for...

We consider taxation by a utilitarian government in the presence of heterogeneous locations within a country. We show that a utilitarian government never equalizes after-tax incomes, even when it can impose group-specific lump-sum taxes. If migration is impossible, a utilitarian government may...

Following a critical examination of the two predominant approaches to tax policy, formalist and utilitarianism, this Article posits a “political-interpretive” approach that looks to our actual tax-related practices as source material for designing normative reforms. Applying a...