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Political Economy of Mechanisms

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Author Info
Daron Acemoglu (MIT)
Michael Golosov (MIT)
Aleh Tsyvinski (Harvard)

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Abstract

We study the optimal Mirrlees taxation problem in a dynamic economy. In contrast to the standard approach where the taxation mechanism is operated by a benevolent planner with full commitment power, we focus on economies in which policy decisions are made by self-interested politicians, who cannot commit to policies. The society controls politicians using elections. We show that the provision of incentives to politicians can be partly separated from redistribution across agents and that political economy constraints can be modeled as introducing additional aggregate distortions in the dynamic Mirrlees problem. We provide conditions under which the political economy distortions persist or disappear in the long run. If the politicians are as patient as the agents, the “best sustainable mechanism” leads to an asymptotic allocation where the aggregate distortions arising from political economy disappear. In contrast, when politicians are less patient than the citizens, positive aggregate labor and capital taxes remain even asymptotically. We conclude by providing a brief comparison of centralized mechanisms operated by self-interested politicians to anonymous markets.

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Paper provided by Laboratory for Macroeconomic Analysis in its series Working Papers with number CAS_RN_2007_2.

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Length: 46 pages
Date of creation: Feb 2007
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Handle: RePEc:cas:wpaper:cas_rn_2007_2

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Related research
Keywords: dynamic incentive problems; mechanism design; optimal taxation; political economy; public finance.;

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Find related papers by JEL classification:
H11 - Public Economics - - Structure and Scope of Government - - - Structure and Scope of Government
H21 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Efficiency; Optimal Taxation
E61 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Macroeconomic Policy, Macroeconomic Aspects of Public Finance, and General Outlook - - - Policy Objectives; Policy Designs and Consistency; Policy Coordination
P16 - Economic Systems - - Capitalist Systems - - - Political Economy of Capitalism

References listed on IDEAS
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Full references

Cited by:
(explanations, Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.)

  1. Ricardo J. Caballero & Pierre Yared, 2008. "Future Rent-Seeking and Current Public Savings," NBER Working Papers 14417, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  2. Stefania Albanesi & Roc Armenter, 2007. "Intertemporal Distortions in the Second best," NBER Working Papers 13629, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  3. Daron Acemoglu & Michael Golosov & Aleh Tsyvinski, 2007. "Political Economy of Mechanisms," Working Papers CAS_RN_2007_2, Laboratory for Macroeconomic Analysis. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  4. Acemoglu, Daron & Ticchi, Davide & Vindigni, Andrea, 2008. "A Theory of Military Dictatorships," IZA Discussion Papers 3392, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA). [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  5. Daron Acemoglu & Michael Golosov & Aleh Tsyvinski, 2008. "Political Economy of Ramsey Taxation," Levine's Bibliography 122247000000002192, UCLA Department of Economics. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  6. Ricardo J. Caballero & Pierre Yared, 2008. "Inflating the Beast: Political Incentives Under Uncertainty," NBER Working Papers 13779, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  7. Auriol, Emmanuelle & Gary-Bobo, Robert J., 2007. "On the Optimal Number of Representatives," CEPR Discussion Papers 6417, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  8. Felix Bierbrauer & Marco Sahm, 2008. "Optimal Democratic Mechanisms for Taxation and Public Good Provision," Working Paper Series of the Max Planck Institute for Research on Collective Goods 2008_09, Max Planck Institute for Research on Collective Goods. [Downloadable!]
  9. Panagiotis Chronis & Aspassia Strantzalou, 2008. "Monetary and Fiscal Policy Interaction: What is the Role of the Transaction Cost of the Tax System in Stabilisation Policies?," Working Papers 71, Bank of Greece. [Downloadable!]
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