Voting and Nonlinear Taxes in a Stylized Representative Democracy

Henning Bohn and Charles Stuart

No 1058, CESifo Working Paper Series from CESifo

Abstract: We derive median-voter results and study the shape of redistributional taxes when voters elect a candidate who imposes taxes to maximize own utility. Under general conditions, a median-productivity candidate is a Condorcet winner. The imposed tax function is nonlinear, may place high marginal rates on very low incomes, and may have an interval of negative marginal rates below the income of the winning candidate. Marginal rates are positive throughout, however, if non-redistributional spending or altruism toward the poor are great enough.

Date: 2003
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cdm and nep-pol
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (9)

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