Economics is not what you think: A defense of the economic approach to taxation

In The Myth of Ownership-Taxes and Justice, Liam Mur-phy and Thomas Nagel (2002) launch an attack against a straw man, the economist who believes that taxation should minimally interfere with property rights and should seek to preserve the market distribution of wealth and income. Instead they propose an approach that focuses on the consequences of any form of public intervention for the distribution of welfare, without any particular ethical concern for the values emerging from the market. In fact, such an approach has been long developed by Mirrlees (1971), whose approach has been dominating the economics of taxation for the last forty years. But more recently the fairness approach to taxation goes beyond welfare consequentialism and attributes some value to market allocations, in line with the theories of justice proposed by Rawls and Dworkin. Economics is not what you think: A defense of the economic approach to taxation 2/17 Fondation Maison des sciences de l'homme-190 avenue de France-75013 Paris-France in economics and philosophy has been devoted to normative economics, distributive justice, and the evaluation of public policy. The main areas of application are the measurement of social welfare, climate policies, health prioritizing, and optimal taxation. He has been professor of economics and CNRS researcher in France. He is the coordinating editor of Social Choice and Welfare and a former editor of Economics and Philosophy. Les Working Papers et les Position Papers de la Fondation Maison des sciences de l'homme ont pour objectif la diffusion ouverte des tra-vaux en train de se faire dans le cadre des diverses activités scientifiques de la Fonda-tion : Le Collège d' études mondiales, Bourses Fernand Braudel-IFER, Programmes scien-tifiques, hébergement à la Maison Suger, Séminaires et Centres associés, Directeurs d'études associés... Les opinions exprimées dans cet article n' en-gagent que leur auteur et ne reflètent pas nécessairement les positions institutionnelles de la Fondation MSH. The Working Papers and Position Papers of the FMSH are produced in the course of the scientific activities of the FMSH: the chairs of the Institute for Global Studies, Fernand Braudel-IFER grants, the Founda-tion's scientific programmes, or the scholars hosted at the Maison Suger or as associate research directors. Working Papers may also be produced in partnership with affiliated institutions. The views expressed in this paper are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect institutional positions from the Foundation MSH.