This paper analyzes optimal linear commodity taxes joint with non-linear income taxes. We provide optimal tax rules based on empirically observable elasticities. We demonstrate that commodities should be taxed/subsidized if doing so boosts labor supply. The critical role of commodity taxation is...

From 1980 until 2007, U.S. average hours worked increased by thirteen percent, due to a large increase in female hours. At the same time, the U.S. labor wedge, measured as the discrepancy between a representative household's marginal rate of substitution between consumption and leisure and the...

This paper examines the problem of optimal tax mix analytically in a two-sector growth model with transitional dynamics. Tax revenue is required to provide a pure public good. The key problems are: over-consumption of leisure under labor income or consumption taxes; and under-investment in human...

Every year over 20 states offer sales tax holidays (STHs) on specific items like clothes, shoes and other items to encourage consumption, effecting over 100 million consumers. We use a unique dataset of credit cards transaction to study the spending response to these holidays. Using a...

This paper argues that high political competition does not necessarily induce policy makers to perform better as previous research has shown. We develop a political economy model and we show that when political competition is tight, and elected politicians can rely on more tax instruments, they...

Does the association between household characteristics and household CO2 emissions differ for different areas such as home energy, transport, indirect and total emissions in the UK? Specific types of households might be more likely to have high emissions in some areas than in others and thus be...

This paper analyzes the relationship between corporate taxation, firm age and debt. We adapt a standard model of capital structure choice under corporate taxation, focusing on the financing and investment decisions a firm is typically faced with. Our model suggests that the debt ratio is...

Die vorliegende Arbeit untersucht anhand von europäischen Firmendaten den Einfluss der Körperschaftsteuer auf die Unternehmensverschuldung. Dabei wird insbesondere auf Firmenheterogentität in Bezug auf Firmengröße und Gesellschaftsform fokussiert. Der verwendete Datensatz enthält...

This paper analyzes the relationship between capital structure, corporate taxation and firm age. We adapt a standard model of optimal capital structure choice under corporate taxation, focusing on the financing and investment decisions a young firm is typically faced with. Our model allows to...

This paper studies how heterogeneity in income dynamics affects the POUM hypothesis (the idea that poor people do not support high level of redistribution because they hope to be rich in the future). We consider a setting where individuals evaluate their expected future income using both their...