Optimal indirect and capital taxation

Mikhail Golosov, Narayana Kocherlakota, Aleh Tsyvinski

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

204 Scopus citations

Abstract

We consider an environment in which agents' skills are private information and follow arbitrary stochastic processes. We prove that it is typically Pareto optimal for an individual's marginal benefit of investing in capital to exceed his marginal cost of doing so. This wedge is consistent with a positive tax on capital income. We also prove that it is Pareto optimal for the marginal rate of substitution between any two consumption goods to equal the marginal rate of transformation. This lack of a wedge is consistent with uniform taxation of consumption goods within a period.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)569-587
Number of pages19
JournalReview of Economic Studies
Volume70
Issue number3
DOIs
StatePublished - Jul 2003

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

  • Economics and Econometrics

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