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Social discounting, migration, and optimal taxation of savings

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  • Valeria De Bonis
  • Luca Spataro

Abstract

We study the problem of optimal inheritance and capital income taxation in an economy with migration. We find that, contrary to previous studies on OLG models, even if the utility function is assumed to be homothetic and separable in consumption and leisure, a non-zero tax result emerges whenever the policy maker attaches weights to the individual utility functions in the social welfare function that are allowed to vary through time, for example, according to the demographic dynamics of the economy. We also perform a welfare analysis of the choice among different social weights: the results depend on several factors, among which the extent of the distortions induced by the tax instruments vis-à-vis the suboptimality of the market allocation in an OLG economy, deriving from the disconnection among generations. Copyright 2010 Oxford University Press 2009 All rights reserved, Oxford University Press.

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  • Valeria De Bonis & Luca Spataro, 2010. "Social discounting, migration, and optimal taxation of savings," Oxford Economic Papers, Oxford University Press, vol. 62(3), pages 603-623, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:oup:oxecpp:v:62:y:2010:i:3:p:603-623
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    Cited by:

    1. Valeria De Bonis, 2016. "Innovation, competition and public procurement in the pre-commercial phase," Public Finance Research Papers 23, Istituto di Economia e Finanza, DSGE, Sapienza University of Rome.
    2. Spataro, Luca & Renström, Thomas I., 2012. "Optimal taxation, critical-level utilitarianism and economic growth," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 96(9-10), pages 727-738.
    3. Luca Spataro & Tommaso Crescioli, 2024. "How much capital should be taxed? A review of the quantitative and empirical literature," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 38(4), pages 1399-1436, September.
    4. Valeria Bonis & Luca Spataro, 2018. "Optimal income taxation and migration," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 25(4), pages 867-882, August.
    5. Thomas I. Renström & Luca Spataro, 2021. "Optimal taxation in an endogenous growth model with variable population and public expenditure," Journal of Public Economic Theory, Association for Public Economic Theory, vol. 23(4), pages 639-659, August.

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    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • E62 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Macroeconomic Policy, Macroeconomic Aspects of Public Finance, and General Outlook - - - Fiscal Policy; Modern Monetary Theory
    • H21 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Efficiency; Optimal Taxation

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