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Intertemporal Distortions in the Second best

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Author Info
Stefania Albanesi
Roc Armenter

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Abstract

This paper studies the long run properties of intertemporal distortions in a broad class of second best economies. Our unified framework encompasses and extends many well known models, such as variants of the Ramsey taxation model with aggregate or idiosyncratic risk, and economies with incentive compatibility constraints due to limited commitment, political economy, self-enforcement or private information, or combinations of these. We identify a sufficient condition that rules out permanent intertemporal distortions: If there exists an allocation that satisfies all constraints and eventually converges to the limiting first best allocation, then intertemporal distortions are temporary in the second best. This result uncovers a common optimality principle linking the intertemporal allocation of resources with the ability to frontload distortions for this broad class of environments. A series of applications illustrates the significance of these findings.

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Paper provided by National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc in its series NBER Working Papers with number 13629.

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Date of creation: Nov 2007
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Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:13629

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Find related papers by JEL classification:
E6 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Macroeconomic Policy, Macroeconomic Aspects of Public Finance, and General Outlook
H21 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Efficiency; Optimal Taxation

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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. Junsang Lee & Yili Chien, 2008. "Why Tax Capital?," ANUCBE School of Economics Working Papers 2008-497, Australian National University, College of Business and Economics, School of Economics. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  2. Daron Acemoglu & Michael Golosov & Aleh Tsyvinski, 2008. "Political Economy of Ramsey Taxation," Levine's Bibliography 122247000000002192, UCLA Department of Economics. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
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