A Unified Perspective on Efficiency, Redistribution, and Public Policy

Louis Kaplow

No 26683, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

Abstract: Specialized theoretical and empirical research should in principle be embedded in a unified framework that identifies the relevant interactions among different phenomena, enables an appropriate matching of policy instruments to objectives, and grounds normative analysis in individuals’ utilities and a social welfare function. This article advances an approach that both provides integration across many dimensions and contexts and also identifies which tasks may be undertaken separately and how such analysis should be conducted so as to be consistent with the underlying framework. It employs the distribution-neutral methodology and welfare analysis developed in Kaplow (2008a) and related work, offering applications to income taxation, commodity taxation, tax expenditures, externalities, public goods, capital income and wealth taxation, social security and retirement savings, estate and gift taxation, and transfer programs. It also explores welfare criteria and examines how their consideration enables the normative analysis of the taxation of families, heterogeneous preferences, and tax administration and enforcement.

JEL-codes: D61 D62 D63 H20 H21 H23 H24 H26 H41 H43 H53 H55 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020-01
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-pbe and nep-pub
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (7)

Published as Louis Kaplow, 2020. "A Unified Perspective on Efficiency, Redistribution, and Public Policy," National Tax Journal, vol 73(2), pages 429-472.

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