Tax policy and fair inequality

Alexander Wright Cappelen () and Bertil Tungodden ()

No 3/2012, Discussion Paper Series in Economics from Department of Economics, Norwegian School of Economics

Abstract: The standard economic approach to tax policy has to a large extent relied on welfarist theories of justice, in particular the utilitarian view that the government should try to maximize the sum of individual welfare. This welfarist framework has proved a productive point of departure for much economic analysis, but it has an important limitation in its inability to take into account considerations of personal responsibility. Welfarist theories evaluate policies solely on the basis of their consequences for individual welfare, and thus do not assign any intrinsic importance to how a specific situation came about.

Keywords: Tax policy; Income inequality; Fairness. (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D31 D63 J31 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-pbe and nep-pub
Date: 2012-02-15
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