Voting and Nonlinear Taxes in a Stylized Representative Democracy
53 Pages Posted: 29 Oct 2003
Date Written: October 2003
Abstract
We derive median-voter results and study the shape of redistributional taxes when voters elect a candidate who imposes taxes to maximize own utility. Under general conditions, a median-productivity candidate is a Condorcet winner. The imposed tax function is non-linear, may place high marginal rates on very low incomes, and may have an interval of negative marginal rates below the income of the winning candidate. Marginal rates are positive throughout, however, if non-redistributional spending or altruism toward the poor are great enough.
JEL Classification: D7, H2
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation
Do you have a job opening that you would like to promote on SSRN?
Recommended Papers
-
Preferences for Redistribution
By Alberto F. Alesina and Paola Giuliano
-
Preferences for Redistribution
By Alberto F. Alesina and Paola Giuliano
-
Preferences for Redistribution
By Alberto F. Alesina and Paola Giuliano
-
Social Mobility and the Demand for Redistribution: the Poum Hypothesis
By Roland Bénabou and Efe A. Ok
-
Why Doesn't the Us Have a European-Style Welfare State?
By Alberto F. Alesina, Edward L. Glaeser, ...
-
Belief in a Just World and Redistributive Politics
By Roland Bénabou and Jean Tirole