scholarly journals The Optimal Taxation of Height: A Case Study of Utilitarian Income Redistribution

2010 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 155-176 ◽  
Author(s):  
N. Gregory Mankiw ◽  
Matthew Weinzierl
Keyword(s):  
Distributive Justice ◽  
Income Tax ◽  
Optimal Taxation ◽  
Income Redistribution ◽  
Personal Attributes ◽  
Using Data

Should the income tax include a credit for short taxpayers and a surcharge for tall ones? The standard utilitarian framework for tax analysis answers this question in the affirmative. Moreover, a plausible parameterization using data on height and wages implies a substantial height tax: a tall person earning $50,000 should pay $4,500 more in tax than a short person. One interpretation is that personal attributes correlated with wages should be considered more widely for determining taxes. Alternatively, if policies such as a height tax are rejected, then the standard utilitarian framework must fail to capture intuitive notions of distributive justice. (JEL D64, H21, H23, H24, J11)

The Dynamics of Policy Formation: Income Tax Rates in Israel, 1948–1975

1984 ◽  
Vol 2 (3) ◽  
pp. 271-284 ◽  
Author(s):  
A Radian
Keyword(s):  
Income Tax ◽  
Optimal Taxation ◽  
Policy Formation ◽  
Tax Rates ◽  
Marginal Rate ◽  
Common Error ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Policy Problems ◽  
Rules Of The Game

In this paper, an attempt is made to show the importance of incorporating ‘politics’ into tax designs. Models of optimal taxation generally offer limited policy-relevant guidance, since they either ignore politics altogether or make wrong assumptions concerning goals and rules of the game. One such common error is the assumption that governments attempt to promote ‘equity’. A case study of changes in the top marginal rate of income tax in Israel demonstrates how goals, values, constraints, and opportunities shape the definition of policy problems and the solutions that are eventually chosen.

A case study of global ULF pulsations using data from space-borne and ground-based magnetometers and a SuperDARN radar

2011 ◽  
Vol 17 (6) ◽  
pp. 54-67
Author(s):  
A.S. Potapov ◽  
◽  
E. Amata ◽  
T.N. Polyushkina ◽  
I. Coco ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Using Data

The Interactional Foundations of Economic Forecasting

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Werner Reichmann
Keyword(s):  
Economic Forecasting ◽  
Political Actors ◽  
Social Legitimacy ◽  
Using Data ◽  
Economic Future ◽  
Economic Forecasts ◽  
Epistemic Process

How do economic forecasters produce legitimate and credible predictions of the economic future, despite most of the economy being transmutable and indeterminate? Using data from a case study of economic forecasting institutes in Germany, this chapter argues that the production of credible economic futures depends on an epistemic process embedded in various forms of interaction. This interactional foundation—through ‘foretalk’ and ‘epistemic participation’ in networks of internal and external interlocutors—sharpens economic forecasts in three ways. First, it brings to light new imaginaries of the economic future, allowing forecasters to spot emerging developments they would otherwise have missed. Second, it ensures the forecasts’ social legitimacy. And finally, it increases the forecasts’ epistemic quality by providing decentralized information about the intentions and assumptions of key economic and political actors.

scholarly journals Extending Geodemographics Using Data Primitives: A Review and a Methodological Proposal

2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (6) ◽  
pp. 386
Author(s):  
Jennie Gray ◽  
Lisa Buckner ◽  
Alexis Comber
Keyword(s):  
Social Dynamics ◽  
Feature Space ◽  
Social Processes ◽  
Multiple Time ◽  
Current State ◽  
Cluster Label ◽  
Static Data ◽  
The Social ◽  
Using Data

This paper reviews geodemographic classifications and developments in contemporary classifications. It develops a critique of current approaches and identifiea a number of key limitations. These include the problems associated with the geodemographic cluster label (few cluster members are typical or have the same properties as the cluster centre) and the failure of the static label to describe anything about the underlying neighbourhood processes and dynamics. To address these limitations, this paper proposed a data primitives approach. Data primitives are the fundamental dimensions or measurements that capture the processes of interest. They can be used to describe the current state of an area in a multivariate feature space, and states can be compared over multiple time periods for which data are available, through for example a change vector approach. In this way, emergent social processes, which may be too weak to result in a change in a cluster label, but are nonetheless important signals, can be captured. As states are updated (for example, as new data become available), inferences about different social processes can be made, as well as classification updates if required. State changes can also be used to determine neighbourhood trajectories and to predict or infer future states. A list of data primitives was suggested from a review of the mechanisms driving a number of neighbourhood-level social processes, with the aim of improving the wider understanding of the interaction of complex neighbourhood processes and their effects. A small case study was provided to illustrate the approach. In this way, the methods outlined in this paper suggest a more nuanced approach to geodemographic research, away from a focus on classifications and static data, towards approaches that capture the social dynamics experienced by neighbourhoods.

Optimal Taxation of Families: Mirrlees meets Becker*

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Musab Kurnaz
Keyword(s):  
Quantitative Analysis ◽  
Income Distribution ◽  
Income Tax ◽  
Optimal Taxation ◽  
Tax Credits ◽  
Child Rearing ◽  
Welfare Gains ◽  
Us Economy ◽  
Parental Time ◽  
The Us

Abstract This paper studies optimal taxation of families—a combination of an income tax schedule and child tax credits. Child-rearing requires both goods and parental time, which distinctly impact the design of optimal child tax credits. In the quantitative analysis, I calibrate my model to the US economy and show that the optimal child tax credits are U-shaped in income and are decreasing in family size. In particular, the optimal credits decrease in the first nine deciles of the income distribution and then increase thereafter. Implementing the optimum yields large welfare gains.

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