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Tax riots

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Marco Bassetto
Christopher Phelan

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Abstract

This paper considers an optimal taxation environment where household income is private information, and the government randomly audits and punishes households found to be underreporting. We prove that the optimal mechanism derived using standard mechanism design techniques has a bad equilibrium (a tax riot) where households underreport their incomes, precisely because other households are expected to do so as well. We then consider three alternative approaches to designing a tax scheme when one is worried about bad equilibria.

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Paper provided by Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago in its series Working Paper Series with number WP-06-04.

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Date of creation: 2006
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Handle: RePEc:fip:fedhwp:wp-06-04

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Keywords: Taxation ; Households;

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  1. Fudenberg, Drew & Levine, David & Pesendorfer, Wolfgang, 1998. "When Are Nonanonymous Players Negligible?," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 79(1), pages 46-71, March. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  2. Krasa, Stefan & Villamil, Anne P, 1994. "Optimal Multilateral Contracts," Economic Theory, Springer, vol. 4(2), pages 167-87, March.
  3. Mirrlees, James A, 1971. "An Exploration in the Theory of Optimum Income Taxation," Review of Economic Studies, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 38(114), pages 175-208, April. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  4. David K. Levine & Wolfgang Pesendorfer, 1995. "When Are Agents Negligible?," Levine's Working Paper Archive 96, David K. Levine. [Downloadable!]
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  5. Ennis, Huberto M. & Keister, Todd, 2005. "Government policy and the probability of coordination failures," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 49(4), pages 939-973, May. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  6. Jackson, Matthew O, 1991. "Bayesian Implementation," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 59(2), pages 461-77, March. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  7. Ennis, Huberto M. & Keister, Todd, 2005. "Optimal fiscal policy under multiple equilibria," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 52(8), pages 1359-1377, November. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  8. Moffitt, Robert, 1985. "Unemployment insurance and the distribution of unemployment spells," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 28(1), pages 85-101, April. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  9. Mikhail Golosov & Narayana Kocherlakota & Aleh Tsyvinski, 2003. "Optimal Indirect and Capital Taxation," Review of Economic Studies, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 70(3), pages 569-587, 07. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  10. Mikhail Golosov & Aleh Tsyvinski, 2003. "Designing Optimal Disability Insurance," Levine's Bibliography 506439000000000217, UCLA Department of Economics. [Downloadable!]
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  11. Stefania Albanesi & Christopher Sleet, 2006. "Dynamic Optimal Taxation with Private Information," Review of Economic Studies, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 73(1), pages 1-30, 01. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  12. Mikhail Golosov & Aleh Tsyvinski, 2006. "Designing Optimal Disability Insurance: A Case for Asset Testing," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 114(2), pages 257-279, April. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  13. Matthew O. Jackson, 2001. "A crash course in implementation theory," Social Choice and Welfare, Springer, vol. 18(4), pages 655-708. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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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. Felix Bierbrauer, 2009. "Optimal Income Taxation and Public Goods Provision in a Large Economy with Aggregate Uncertainty," CESifo Working Paper Series CESifo Working Paper No. , CESifo Group Munich. [Downloadable!]
  2. Elöd Takáts & Tamás K. Papp, 2008. "Tax Rate Cuts and Tax Compliance--The Laffer Curve Revisited," IMF Working Papers 08/7, International Monetary Fund. [Downloadable!]
  3. Cristina Arellano & Narayana Kocherlakota, 2008. "Internal Debt Crises and Sovereign Defaults," Levine's Bibliography 122247000000001880, UCLA Department of Economics. [Downloadable!]
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