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Pawns and Queens Revisited: Public Provision of Private Goods When Individuals Make Mistakes

Author

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  • Jukka Pirttilä
  • Sanna Tenhunen

    (School of Management, University of Tampere)

Abstract

This paper analyses the optimal tax policy and public provision of private goods when individuals di¤er in two respects: income-earning ability and rationality. Publicly provided goods should be overprovided or subsidised, relative to the decentralised optimum, if society\'s marginal valuation of them exceeds the individual valuation and if these goods help relax the self-selection constraints, formulated in a new way. Optimal marginal income tax rates are shown to di¤er from the standard rules if publicly provided goods and labour supply are related.

Suggested Citation

  • Jukka Pirttilä & Sanna Tenhunen, 2005. "Pawns and Queens Revisited: Public Provision of Private Goods When Individuals Make Mistakes," Working Papers 0540, Tampere University, Faculty of Management and Business, Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:tam:wpaper:0540
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    File URL: http://urn.fi/urn:isbn:951-44-6271-8
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Ravi Kanbur & Jukka Pirttilä & Matti Tuomala, 2006. "Non‐Welfarist Optimal Taxation And Behavioural Public Economics," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 20(5), pages 849-868, December.
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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Hanming Fang & Peter Norman, 2014. "Toward an efficiency rationale for the public provision of private goods," Economic Theory, Springer;Society for the Advancement of Economic Theory (SAET), vol. 56(2), pages 375-408, June.
    2. Ravi Kanbur & Jukka Pirttilä & Matti Tuomala, 2006. "Non‐Welfarist Optimal Taxation And Behavioural Public Economics," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 20(5), pages 849-868, December.
    3. David Laibson, 1997. "Golden Eggs and Hyperbolic Discounting," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 112(2), pages 443-478.
    4. Aronsson, Thomas & Granlund, David, 2010. "Present-Biased Preferences and Publicly Provided Health Care," HUI Working Papers 41, HUI Research.
    5. Aronsson, Thomas & Sjögren, Tomas, 2016. "Quasi-hyperbolic discounting, paternalism and optimal mixed taxation," Mathematical Social Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 84(C), pages 24-36.
    6. Gonzales-Eiras, Martín & Niepelt, Dirk, 2004. "Sustaining Social Security," Seminar Papers 731, Stockholm University, Institute for International Economic Studies.
    7. Jukka Pirttilä & Sanna Tenhunen, 2008. "Pawns and queens revisited: public provision of private goods when individuals make mistakes," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 15(5), pages 599-619, October.
    8. Marcelo Arbex & Flavia Chein & Isabela Furtado & Enlinson Mattos, 2017. "Publicly Provided Private Goods and Informal Labor Supply," Working Papers 1710, University of Windsor, Department of Economics.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Behavioral economics; optimal taxation; public provision.;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • H21 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Efficiency; Optimal Taxation
    • H42 - Public Economics - - Publicly Provided Goods - - - Publicly Provided Private Goods

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