Empirical evidence suggests that poorer countries have larger portions of predation. We formulate a neoclassical growth model in which agents devote time either to produce or predate. When the elasticity of substitution between labor and capital is lower than one, the labor share rises with...

To understand the weak empirical relationship between human capital and macroeconomic performance, this paper presents a model in which human capital is allocated to three activities: production, tax collection (bureaucracy), and public education. The effective tax rate is low in poor countries...

To understand the weak empirical relationship between human capital and macroeconomic performance, this paper presents a model in which human capital is allocated to three activities: production, tax collection (bureaucracy), and public education. The effective tax rate is low in poor countries...

This paper proposes a new mechanism based on the allocation of labor to help understand why differences among countries have remained stable. We formulate a neoclassical growth model in which agents devote time either to produce or to commit predation. Labor share is the key variable which...

A benchmark result in the political economy of taxation is that the degree of redistribution is positively linked to income inequality. However, empirical evidence supporting such a relationship turns out to be mixed. This paper shows how these different empirical reactions can be rationalized...

Empirical evidence suggests that family background and parental criminality are strong predictors of an individuals’ criminal behavior. The aim of this paper is to account for this intergenerational nature of criminal behavior within a simple theoretical model. Drawing on the literature of...

This paper proposes a theoretical model to account for the most relevant micro- and macroeconomic empirical facts in the tax evasion literature. To do so, we integrate tax morale into a dynamic overlapping generations model of capital income tax evasion. Tax morale is modeled as a social norm...