This paper expands Baranzini's (1991) approach by introducing the assumption of an open economy to a model of capital accumulation in an intergenerational framework. Our results show the importance of government activity and foreign trade interrelations in determining the path of the income...

Over the last decades, the United States has experienced a large increase in, both, income inequality and living standards. The workhorse models of optimal income taxation call for more redistribution as inequality rises. By contrast, living standards play no role for taxes and transfers in...