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A Unified Perspective on Efficiency, Redistribution, and Public Policy

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  • Louis Kaplow

Abstract

Specialized theoretical and empirical research should in principle be embedded in a unified framework that identifies the relevant interactions among different phenomena, enables an appropriate matching of policy instruments to objectives, and grounds normative analysis in individuals’ utilities and a social welfare function. This article advances an approach that both provides integration across many dimensions and contexts and also identifies which tasks may be undertaken separately and how such analysis should be conducted so as to be consistent with the underlying framework. It employs the distribution-neutral methodology and welfare analysis developed in Kaplow (2008a) and related work, offering applications to income taxation, commodity taxation, tax expenditures, externalities, public goods, capital income and wealth taxation, social security and retirement savings, estate and gift taxation, and transfer programs. It also explores welfare criteria and examines how their consideration enables the normative analysis of the taxation of families, heterogeneous preferences, and tax administration and enforcement.

Suggested Citation

  • Louis Kaplow, 2020. "A Unified Perspective on Efficiency, Redistribution, and Public Policy," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association;National Tax Journal, vol. 73(2), pages 429-472, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:ntj:journl:v:73:y:2020:i:2:p:429-472
    DOI: 10.17310/ntj.2020.2.05
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    Cited by:

    1. Dirk Krueger & Alexander Ludwig & Irina Popova, 2024. "Shaping Inequality and Intergenerational Persistence of Poverty: Free College or Better Schools," NBER Working Papers 32467, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    2. Carlos Esteban Posada, 2022. "Redistribution Policy and Social Welfare: A View from Macroeconomics," Documentos de Trabajo de Valor Público 20197, Universidad EAFIT.
    3. Louis Kaplow, 2023. "Optimal Income Taxation and Charitable Giving," NBER Chapters, in: Tax Policy and the Economy, Volume 38, pages 123-162, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    4. Flaviana Palmisano & Ida Petrillo, 2022. "A general rank‐dependent approach for distributional comparisons," Journal of Public Economic Theory, Association for Public Economic Theory, vol. 24(2), pages 380-409, April.
    5. Robin Boadway & Katherine Cuff, 2023. "The Case for Uniform Commodity Taxation: A Tax Reform Approach," Hacienda Pública Española / Review of Public Economics, IEF, vol. 244(1), pages 79-109, March.
    6. Dirk Krueger & Alexander Ludwig & Irina Popova, 2024. "Shaping Inequality and Intergenerational Persistence of Poverty: Free College or Better Schools," PIER Working Paper Archive 24-023, Penn Institute for Economic Research, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania.

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