We consider the joint effect of profit and Pigouvian taxation in a model of imperfect competition. We show that, when both profit taxation and Pigouvian taxation/subsidy are used, the former is no longer neutral. The two fiscal tools are substitutes, and for any profit taxation rate there exists a unique Pigouvian tax that entails the first best outcome as an equilibrium. Our analysis therefore...

To analyze the optimal social insurance package, we set up a two-period life-cycle model with risky human capital investment, where the government has access to labor taxation, education subsidies and capital taxation. Social insurance is provided by redistributive labor taxation. Moreover, both education subsidies and capital taxation are used as catalyzers to facilitate social insurance by mi...

Chapter Outline Designing Broad-Based Taxes: The Economic Objectives 171 Ability to Pay: Theoretical Considerations 173 Two Preliminary Considerations 173 Horizontal Equity 174 From Horizontal Equity to the Ideal Tax Base 174 The Three Principles of Tax Design 174 People Bear the Tax Burden 174 Individuals Sacrifice Utility 174 The Ideal Tax Base as the Best Surrogate Measure of Utility 175 Hai...

“Optimal fiscal and monetary policy with commitment” is a policy of choosing taxes and transfers or monetary instruments to maximize social welfare. “Commitment” refers to ability of a policymaker to make binding policy choices. Optimal fiscal policy under commitment Ramsey approach to the optimal taxation “Ramsey approach to optimal taxation” is a solution to the problem of choosing optimal ta...

I document that government debt is related to risk premia in various asset markets: (i) the debt-to-GDP ratio positively predicts excess stock returns with out-of-sample R2 up to 30% at a five-year horizon, outperforming many popular predictors; (ii) the debt-to-GDP ratio is positively correlated with credit risk premia in both corporate bond excess returns and yield spreads; (iii) higher debt-...

Tax evasion has always been an important topic to tax theory researchers and the department of government. However, existing research results are confined to the unilateral action of taxpayers, neglect the interaction between the tax declaration and taxation inspection. This paper, from an optimal tax administration perspective, builds a general equilibrium model, in which, taxation inspection ...

Taxation has been suggested as a possible preventive strategy to address the serious public health concern of childhood obesity. Understanding the public's viewpoint on the potential role of taxation is vital to inform policy decisions if they are to be acceptable to the wider community. A Citizens' Jury is a deliberative method for engaging the public in decision making and can assist in setti...

Two policy instruments for the banking sector are investigated, namely systemic risk taxation and constructive ambiguity about bailout policy. Bailout expectations can induce moral hazard in the form of excessive risk taking by banks. Systemic risk taxation induces banks to prefer uncorrelated investments, leading to lower systemic risk formation. Constructive ambiguity generates uncertainty ab...

Double taxation treaties are intended to eliminate double taxation, thereby encouraging FDI, and prevent tax evasion, which previous literature argues will have a negative effect on FDI. Using a segmented data set and matching econometrics, I show that double taxation treaties have no effect on FDI from developed to less developed countries and substantiate why: Developed countries unilaterally...