IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/rut/rutres/201801.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Further Results on the Inequality Reducing Properties of Income Tax Schedules

Author

Listed:
  • Oriol Carbonell-Nicolau

    (Rutgers University)

  • Humberto Llavador

    (Universitat Pompeu Fabra and Barcelona GSE)

Abstract

Carbonell-Nicolau and Llavador (forthcoming) extend the classic result of Jakobsson (1976) and Fellman (1976)—according to which average-rate progressive, and only average-rate progressive income taxes, reduce income inequality—to the case of endogenous income. There it is shown that marginal-rate progressivity—in the sense of increasing marginal tax rates on income—is necessary for tax structures to be inequality reducing, and necessary and sufficient conditions on the social utility function are identified under which progressive and only progressive taxes are inequality reducing. This paper takes a further step and furnishes conditions on primitives under which various subclasses of progressive taxes are inequality reducing. The main results in CarbonellNicolau and Llavador (forthcoming) are obtained as particular cases of the more general framework presented here. Restricting the set of taxes allows for larger classes of preferences consistent with inequality reducing income taxation. As an illustration of the results’ practical implications, we provide a precise characterization of the subclass of (progressive) taxes that are inequality reducing for some standard families of preferences.

Suggested Citation

  • Oriol Carbonell-Nicolau & Humberto Llavador, 2018. "Further Results on the Inequality Reducing Properties of Income Tax Schedules," Departmental Working Papers 201801, Rutgers University, Department of Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:rut:rutres:201801
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sas.rutgers.edu/virtual/snde/wp/2018-01.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Eric French, 2005. "The Effects of Health, Wealth, and Wages on Labour Supply and Retirement Behaviour," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 72(2), pages 395-427.
    2. Biung-Ghi Ju & Juan Moreno-Ternero, 2008. "On the equivalence between progressive taxation and inequality reduction," Social Choice and Welfare, Springer;The Society for Social Choice and Welfare, vol. 30(4), pages 561-569, May.
    3. John P. Formby & W. James Smith & David Sykes, 1986. "Income Redistribution and Local Tax Progressivity: A Reconsideration," Canadian Journal of Economics, Canadian Economics Association, vol. 19(4), pages 807-811, November.
    4. Thistle, Paul D., 1988. "Uniform progressivity, residual progression, and single-crossing," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 37(1), pages 121-126, October.
    5. Fellman, J, 1976. "The Effect of Transformations on Lorenz Curves," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 44(4), pages 823-824, July.
    6. Pak-Wai Liu, 1985. "Lorenz Domination and Global Tax Progressivity," Canadian Journal of Economics, Canadian Economics Association, vol. 18(2), pages 395-399, May.
    7. Kakwani, Nanak C, 1977. "Applications of Lorenz Curves in Economic Analysis," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 45(3), pages 719-727, April.
    8. Le Breton, Michel & Moyes, Patrick & Trannoy, Alain, 1996. "Inequality Reducing Properties of Composite Taxation," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 69(1), pages 71-103, April.
    9. Michael P. Keane, 2011. "Labor Supply and Taxes: A Survey," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 49(4), pages 961-1075, December.
    10. Carbonell-Nicolau, Oriol & Llavador, Humberto, 2018. "Inequality reducing properties of progressive income tax schedules: the case of endogenous income," Theoretical Economics, Econometric Society, vol. 13(1), January.
    11. Jesus Seade, 1982. "On the Sign of the Optimum Marginal Income Tax," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 49(4), pages 637-643.
    12. Blundell, R. & French, E. & Tetlow, G., 2016. "Retirement Incentives and Labor Supply," Handbook of the Economics of Population Aging, in: Piggott, John & Woodland, Alan (ed.), Handbook of the Economics of Population Aging, edition 1, volume 1, chapter 0, pages 457-566, Elsevier.
    13. Latham, Roger, 1988. "Lorenz-Dominating Income Tax Functions," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 29(1), pages 185-200, February.
    14. J. A. Mirrlees, 1971. "An Exploration in the Theory of Optimum Income Taxation," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 38(2), pages 175-208.
    15. R. A. Musgrave & Tun Thin, 1948. "Income Tax Progression, 1929-48," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 56(6), pages 498-498.
    16. Cogan, John F, 1981. "Fixed Costs and Labor Supply," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 49(4), pages 945-963, June.
    17. Ebert, Udo & Moyes, Patrick, 2000. "Consistent Income Tax Structures When Households Are Heterogeneous," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 90(1), pages 116-150, January.
    18. Allingham, Michael, 1979. "Inequality and progressive taxation : An example," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 11(2), pages 273-274, March.
    19. Hemming, R. & Keen, M. J., 1983. "Single-crossing conditions in comparisons of tax progressivity," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 20(3), pages 373-380, April.
    20. Thon, Dominique, 1987. "Redistributive properties of progressive taxation," Mathematical Social Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 14(2), pages 185-191, October.
    21. Eichhorn, Wolfgang & Funke, Helmut & Richter, Wolfram F., 1984. "Tax progression and inequality of income distribution," Journal of Mathematical Economics, Elsevier, vol. 13(2), pages 127-131, October.
    22. James J. Heckman & Thomas MaCurdy, 1982. "Corrigendum on A Life Cycle Model of Female Labour Supply," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 49(4), pages 659-660.
    23. Piggott, John & Woodland, Alan (ed.), 2016. "Handbook of the Economics of Population Aging," Handbook of the Economics of Population Aging, Elsevier, edition 1, volume 1, number 1.
    24. Jakobsson, Ulf, 1976. "On the measurement of the degree of progression," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 5(1-2), pages 161-168.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Oriol Carbonell-Nicolau & Humberto Llavador, 2021. "Elasticity determinants of inequality-reducing income taxation," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 19(1), pages 163-183, March.
    2. Michael McAsey & Libin Mou, 2022. "Transformations that minimize the Gini index of a random variable and applications," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 20(2), pages 483-502, June.

    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. Oriol Carbonell-Nicolau & Humberto Llavador, 2021. "Elasticity determinants of inequality-reducing income taxation," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 19(1), pages 163-183, March.
    2. Carbonell-Nicolau, Oriol & Llavador, Humberto, 2018. "Inequality reducing properties of progressive income tax schedules: the case of endogenous income," Theoretical Economics, Econometric Society, vol. 13(1), January.
    3. Oriol Carbonell-Nicolau & Humberto Llavador, 2024. "Social Preorders and Tax Progressivity," Working Papers 1459, Barcelona School of Economics.
    4. Chakravarty, Satya R. & Sarkar, Palash, 2022. "A synthesis of local and effective tax progressivity measurement," MPRA Paper 115180, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    5. Moyes, Patrick, 2003. "Redistributive effects of minimal equal sacrifice taxation," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 108(1), pages 111-140, January.
    6. Biung-Ghi Ju & Juan Moreno-Ternero, 2011. "Progressive and merging-proof taxation," International Journal of Game Theory, Springer;Game Theory Society, vol. 40(1), pages 43-62, February.
    7. Choonsung Park, 2020. "Consumption, Reservation Wages, and Aggregate Labor Supply," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 37, pages 54-80, July.
    8. Tymon Słoczyński, 2012. "Zastosowanie zasady równych ofiar do oceny sprawiedliwości taryfy podatku dochodowego od osób fizycznych (PIT) w Polsce," Gospodarka Narodowa. The Polish Journal of Economics, Warsaw School of Economics, issue 10, pages 23-47.
    9. Biung-Ghi Ju & Juan Moreno-Ternero, 2008. "On the equivalence between progressive taxation and inequality reduction," Social Choice and Welfare, Springer;The Society for Social Choice and Welfare, vol. 30(4), pages 561-569, May.
    10. Patrick Moyes & Alain Trannoy, 1999. "Le quotient familial : une structure fiscale cohérente avec le critère de Lorenz relatif," Économie et Prévision, Programme National Persée, vol. 138(2), pages 111-124.
    11. Satya R. Chakravarty & Palash Sarkar, 2022. "Inequality minimising subsidy and taxation," Economic Theory Bulletin, Springer;Society for the Advancement of Economic Theory (SAET), vol. 10(1), pages 53-67, May.
    12. Oriol Carbonell-Nicolau & Humberto Llavador, 2021. "Inequality, Bipolarization, and Tax Progressivity," American Economic Journal: Microeconomics, American Economic Association, vol. 13(4), pages 492-513, November.
    13. Ivica Urban, 2017. "Measuring income redistribution: beyond the proportionality standard," Working Papers 427, ECINEQ, Society for the Study of Economic Inequality.
    14. Moyes, Patrick & Shorrocks, Anthony, 1998. "The impossibility of a progressive tax structure," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 69(1), pages 49-65, July.
    15. Udo Ebert & Peter J. Lambert, 1999. "Combined Income Taxes and Tax‐Benefit Systems," The Economic Record, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 75(4), pages 397-404, December.
    16. John P. Formby & W. James Smith & Paul D. Thistle, 1990. "The Average Tax Burden and the Welfare Implications of Global Tax Progressivity," Public Finance Review, , vol. 18(1), pages 3-24, January.
    17. repec:zbw:hohpro:331 is not listed on IDEAS
    18. Michael P. Keane, 2011. "Labor Supply and Taxes: A Survey," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 49(4), pages 961-1075, December.
    19. Vincenzo Prete & Alessandro Sommacal & Claudio Zoli, 2016. "Optimal Non-Welfarist Income Taxation for Inequality and Polarization Reduction," Working Papers 23/2016, University of Verona, Department of Economics.
    20. Udo Ebert & Patrick Moyes, 2003. "Proportional income taxation and effective progressivity," Post-Print hal-00160174, HAL.
    21. Biung-Ghi Ju & Juan D. Moreno-Ternero, 2006. "Progressivity, Inequality Reduction, and Merging-Proofness in Taxation," WORKING PAPERS SERIES IN THEORETICAL AND APPLIED ECONOMICS 200603, University of Kansas, Department of Economics, revised Feb 2006.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    progressive taxation; income inequality; incentive effects of taxation;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D63 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics - - - Equity, Justice, Inequality, and Other Normative Criteria and Measurement
    • D71 - Microeconomics - - Analysis of Collective Decision-Making - - - Social Choice; Clubs; Committees; Associations

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:rut:rutres:201801. 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: the person in charge (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/derutus.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.