EconPapers    
Economics at your fingertips  
 

Should we subsidize longevity?

Marie-Louise Leroux, Pierre Pestieau and Gregory Ponthiere

PSE Working Papers from HAL

Abstract: This paper studies the design of the optimal non linear taxation in an economy where longevity varies across agents, and depends on three factors: longevity genes, health investment and farsightedness. Provided earnings, farsightedness and genes are correlated, governmental intervention can be justi.ed on two grounds: correction for a lack of farsightedness and redistribution across both earnings and genetic dimensions. Whether longevity-enhancing spending should be subsidized or taxed is shown to depend on the combined effects of myopia, self-selection and free-riding on the annuity returns. Our policy conclusions depend also on how productivity and genes are correlated, on the complementarity of genes and efforts in the survival function, and on how the government weights the welfare of heterogeneous agents. All in all, it might be desirable to tax longevity-enhancing spending.

Keywords: optimal taxation; longevity; genetic background; heterogeneity; myopia; taxation optimale; longévité; bagage génétique; hétérogénéité; myopie (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2008-09
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-hea, nep-ore and nep-pub
Note: View the original document on HAL open archive server: https://shs.hal.science/halshs-00586236v1
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (8)

Downloads: (external link)
https://shs.hal.science/halshs-00586236v1/document (application/pdf)

Related works:
Working Paper: Should we Subsidize Longevity? (2009) Downloads
Working Paper: Should we subsidize longevity? (2008) Downloads
Working Paper: Should we subsidize longevity? (2008) Downloads
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hal:psewpa:halshs-00586236

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in PSE Working Papers from HAL
Bibliographic data for series maintained by CCSD ().

 
Page updated 2025-03-22
Handle: RePEc:hal:psewpa:halshs-00586236