IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/oxf/wpaper/18.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

The Taxing Issue of Queues

Author

Listed:
  • Terry O'Shaughnessy

Abstract

This paper examines the redistributional function of queues. A system in which subsidies and queues are used to allocate goods may appear attractive to policy makers who are concerned about equity since the resource used in queuing (time) is generally allocated more equally than, say, human or physical capital. Thus a subsidy-queue mechanism performs a role similar to that performed by a tax-benefit system. Both mechanisms, however, bring with them efficiency losses, which the paper compares. It is shown that the subsidy-queue mechanism may appear superior if the trade-off between efficiency and equity is viewed in terms of consumption and the distribution of consumption. On the other hand, if the equity-efficiency trade-off is properly formulated in terms of utility and the distribution of utility the tax-based redistributional mechanism is superior.

Suggested Citation

  • Terry O'Shaughnessy, 2000. "The Taxing Issue of Queues," Economics Series Working Papers 18, University of Oxford, Department of Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:oxf:wpaper:18
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:23efebcf-017b-4beb-969b-c7bdaec21b73
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Lambert, Peter J., 1985. "Social welfare and the gini coefficient revisited," Mathematical Social Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 9(1), pages 19-26, February.
    2. Lambert, Peter J, 1990. "The Equity-Efficiency Trade-Off: Breit Reconsidered," Oxford Economic Papers, Oxford University Press, vol. 42(1), pages 91-104, January.
    3. Lambert, Peter J., 1985. "Endogenizing the income distribution: The redistributive effect, and Laffer effects, of a progressive tax-benefit system," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 1(1), pages 3-20.
    4. Stahl, Dale II & Alexeev, Michael, 1985. "The influence of black markets on a queue-rationed centrally planned economy," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 35(2), pages 234-250, August.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. repec:ebl:ecbull:v:15:y:2004:i:1:p:1-10 is not listed on IDEAS
    2. John Creedy, 2005. "An In‐Work Payment with an Hours Threshold: Labour Supply and Social Welfare," The Economic Record, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 81(255), pages 367-377, December.
    3. Constantine Angyridis & Brennan Scott Thompson, 2016. "Negative income taxes, inequality and poverty," Canadian Journal of Economics, Canadian Economics Association, vol. 49(3), pages 1016-1034, August.
    4. Bennett, John & Dixon, Huw David, 1995. "Macroeconomic equilibrium and reform in a transitional economy," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 39(8), pages 1465-1485, October.
    5. Leitzel, Jim, 1998. "Goods Diversion and Repressed Inflation: Notes on the Political Economy of Price Liberalization," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 94(3-4), pages 255-266, March.
    6. Jeremy Clark & Bonggeun Kim, 2007. "Paying vs. waiting in the pursuit of specific egalitarianism," Oxford Economic Papers, Oxford University Press, vol. 59(3), pages 486-512, July.
    7. Imedio Olmedo, L. J. & Bárcena Martín, E., 2003. "Privación, status e imposición sobre la renta," Estudios de Economia Aplicada, Estudios de Economia Aplicada, vol. 21, pages 123-147, Abril.
    8. Rolf Aaberge, 2009. "Ranking intersecting Lorenz curves," Social Choice and Welfare, Springer;The Society for Social Choice and Welfare, vol. 33(2), pages 235-259, August.
    9. Fridman, Alla, 1997. "Privatization and Price Liberalization: Comparative Analysis," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 24(3), pages 313-334, June.
    10. Roberts, B.W., 1993. "The J-Curve is a Gamma-Curve: Initial Welfare Consequences of Price Liberalization in Eastern Europe," Research Paper 114, World Institute for Development Economics Research.
    11. Labeaga, José M. & Molina, José Alberto & Navarro Paniagua, Maria, 2007. "Income Satisfaction and Deprivation in Spain," IZA Discussion Papers 2702, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    12. Amitrajeet A. Batabyal & Seung Jick Yoo, 2007. "Corruption, Bribery, and Wait Times in the Public Allocation of Goods in Developing Countries," Review of Development Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 11(3), pages 507-517, August.
    13. Alexeev, Michael & Sabyr, Lyaziza, 2004. "Black markets and pre-reform crises in former socialist economies," Economic Systems, Elsevier, vol. 28(1), pages 1-12, March.
    14. Michael Sattinger, 2002. "A Queuing Model of the Market for Access to Trading Partners," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 43(2), pages 533-548, May.
    15. Amitrajeet Batabyal & Peter Nijkamp, 2004. "Favoritism in the Public Provision of Goods in Developing Countries," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 15(1), pages 1-10.
    16. Rodríguez, Juan Gabriel & Salas, Rafael, 2014. "The Gini coefficient: Majority voting and social welfare," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 152(C), pages 214-223.
    17. Goldberg, Linda S. & Karimov, Il'dar, 1997. "Black markets for currency, hoarding activity and policy reforms," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 42(3-4), pages 349-369, May.
    18. Alexeev, Michael & Leitzel, James, 2001. "Income distribution and price controls: Targeting a social safety net during economic transition," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 45(9), pages 1647-1663, October.
    19. Rolf Aaberge, 2003. "Mean-Spread-Preserving Transformations," Discussion Papers 360, Statistics Norway, Research Department.
    20. Bouev Maxim & Matveenko Vladimir & Vostroknutova Ekaterina, 1998. "Transformational Decline and Preconditions of Growth in Russia," EERC Working Paper Series 98-03e, EERC Research Network, Russia and CIS.
    21. Khalil Ahmad & Safdar Ali & Ayesha Haider & Muhammad Shahid & Muhammad Mudassar Naushahi, 2021. "Fiscal Implications for Rural-Urban Income Inequality: The Case of Pakistan," International Journal of Economics & Business Administration (IJEBA), International Journal of Economics & Business Administration (IJEBA), vol. 0(2), pages 246-259.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    redistribution; queues; subsidies; tax-benefit system.;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D60 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics - - - General
    • H20 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - General

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:oxf:wpaper:18. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Anne Pouliquen (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/sfeixuk.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.