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Wage endogeneity, tax evasion, and optimal nonlinear income taxation

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  • Firouz Gahvari
  • Luca Micheletto

Abstract

This paper studies the interaction between tax evasion and wage endogeneity within a Mirrleesian optimal tax framework. It characterizes the optimal marginal income tax rates on the skilled and the unskilled workers and the optimal amount of resources to be spent on deterring tax evasion. It shows that tax evasion weakens the incentives for the government to manipulate the marginal tax rates for the purpose of exploiting general equilibrium effects on wages. Moreover, the extent of this depends on the curvature of the evasion cost function. It also argues that marginal income tax rates are likely to be higher when the government attempts to deter evasion.

Suggested Citation

  • Firouz Gahvari & Luca Micheletto, 2020. "Wage endogeneity, tax evasion, and optimal nonlinear income taxation," Journal of Public Economic Theory, Association for Public Economic Theory, vol. 22(3), pages 501-531, June.
  • Handle: RePEc:bla:jpbect:v:22:y:2020:i:3:p:501-531
    DOI: 10.1111/jpet.12424
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    Cited by:

    1. Siqi Wang & Jun-ichi Itaya, 2023. "Optimal tax design with costly tax evasion," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 43(3), pages 1271-1278.
    2. Chiara Canta & Helmuth Cremer & Firouz Gahvari, 2024. "Welfare‐improving tax evasion," Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 126(1), pages 98-126, January.
    3. Martin Dufwenberg & Katarina Nordblom, 2022. "Tax evasion with a conscience," Journal of Public Economic Theory, Association for Public Economic Theory, vol. 24(1), pages 5-29, February.

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