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Optimal Income Taxation: Mirrlees Meets Ramsey

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  • Jonathan Heathcote
  • Hitoshi Tsujiyama

Abstract

What structure of income taxation maximizes the social benefits of redistribution while minimizing the social harm associated with distorting the allocation of labor input? Many authors have advocated scrapping the current tax system, which redistributes primarily via marginal tax rates that rise with income, and replacing it with a flat tax system, in which marginal tax rates are constant and redistribution is achieved via non-means-tested transfers. In this paper we compare alternative tax systems in an environment with distinct roles for public and private insurance. We evaluate alternative policies using a social welfare function designed to capture the taste for redistribution reflected in the current tax system. In our preferred specification, moving to the optimal flat tax policy reduces welfare, whereas moving to the optimal fully nonlinear Mirrlees policy generates only tiny welfare gains. These findings suggest that proposals for dramatic tax reform should be viewed with caution.

Suggested Citation

  • Jonathan Heathcote & Hitoshi Tsujiyama, 2015. "Optimal Income Taxation: Mirrlees Meets Ramsey," Staff Report 507, Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis.
    • Handle: RePEc:fip:fedmsr:507
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Mirrlees taxation; Optimal income taxation; Tax progressivity; Private insurance; Flat tax; Social welfare functions; Ramsey taxation;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • H21 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Efficiency; Optimal Taxation
    • H31 - Public Economics - - Fiscal Policies and Behavior of Economic Agents - - - Household
    • H23 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Externalities; Redistributive Effects; Environmental Taxes and Subsidies
    • E62 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Macroeconomic Policy, Macroeconomic Aspects of Public Finance, and General Outlook - - - Fiscal Policy; Modern Monetary Theory

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