We study the optimal observability of the tax base within the standard linear income tax problem, where observability is determined by the government’s investment into the accurate measurement of the tax base. We characterize the optimal level of observability and derive a new expression for...

Ausgehend vom bekannten Resultat von Atkinson und Stiglitz kommt man im Standardmodell der optimalen Besteuerung zum Schluss, dass eine Erbschaftssteuer ebenso wie andere indirekte Steuern keine Funktion hat, wenn eine optimale nichtlineare Einkommensteuer eingehoben wird. Beruecksichtigt man...

Given its significance in practice, piecewise linear taxation has received relatively little attention in the literature. This paper offers a simple and transparent analysis of its main characteristics. We fully characterize optimal tax parameters for the cases in which budget sets are convex...

The existing literature on optimal taxation typically assumes there exists a capacity to implement complex tax schemes, which is not necessarily the case for many developing countries. We examine the determinants of optimal redistributive policies in the context of a developing country that can...