Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/114480 
Year of Publication: 
2014
Series/Report no.: 
Working Paper No. 2014-25
Publisher: 
Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, Atlanta, GA
Abstract: 
When individuals' labor and capital income are subject to uninsurable idiosyncratic risks, should capital and labor be taxed, and if so, how? In a two-period general equilibrium model with production, we derive a decomposition formula of the welfare effects of these taxes into insurance and distribution effects. This method allows us to determine how the sign of the optimal taxes on capital and labor depends on the nature of the shocks, the degree of heterogeneity among consumers' income, and the way in which the tax revenue is used to provide lump sum transfers to consumers. When shocks affect primarily labor income and heterogeneity is small, the optimal tax on capital is positive. However, in other cases, a negative tax on capital improves.
Subjects: 
optimal linear taxes
incomplete markets
constrained efficiency
JEL: 
D52
H21
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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