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How Should Tax Progressivity Respond to Rising Income Inequality?

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  • Jonathan Heathcote
  • Kjetil Storesletten
  • Giovanni L. Violante
Abstract
We address this question in a heterogeneous-agent incomplete-markets model featuring exogenous idiosyncratic risk, endogenous skill investment, and flexible labor supply. The tax and transfer schedule is restricted to be log-linear in income, a good description of the US system. Rising inequality is modeled as a combination of skill-biased technical change and growth in residual wage dispersion. When facing shifts in the income distribution like those observed in the US, a utilitarian planner chooses higher progressivity in response to larger residual inequality but lower progressivity in response to widening skill price dispersion reflecting technical change. Overall, optimal progressivity is approximately unchanged between 1980 and 2016. We document that the progressivity of the actual US tax and transfer system has similarly changed little since 1980, in line with the model prescription.

Suggested Citation

  • Jonathan Heathcote & Kjetil Storesletten & Giovanni L. Violante, 2020. "How Should Tax Progressivity Respond to Rising Income Inequality?," NBER Working Papers 28006, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    • Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:28006
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    2. Jalles, João Tovar & Karras, Georgios, 2024. "Tax progressivity and income inequality in the US," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 238(C).
    3. Erik Hurst & Patrick J. Kehoe & Elena Pastorino & Thomas Winberry, 2022. "The Distributional Impact of the Minimum Wage in the Short and Long Run," NBER Working Papers 30294, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    4. Jang, Youngsoo, 2021. "Democracy or Optimal Policy: Income Tax Decisions without Commitment," MPRA Paper 110475, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    5. Jonas Loebbing, 2023. "Redistributive Income Taxation with Directed Technical Change," Rationality and Competition Discussion Paper Series 420, CRC TRR 190 Rationality and Competition.
    6. Juan‐Carlos Cordoba & Marla Ripoll & Siqiang Yang, 2024. "The Full Recession: Private Versus Social Costs Of Covid‐19," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 65(1), pages 547-582, February.
    7. David W. Berger & Kyle F. Herkenhoff & Simon Mongey, 2022. "Minimum Wages, Efficiency and Welfare," Opportunity and Inclusive Growth Institute Working Papers 058, Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis.
    8. Jonas Loebbing, 2020. "Redistributive Income Taxation with Directed Technical Change," CESifo Working Paper Series 8743, CESifo.
    9. Maria Coelho & Aieshwarya Davis & Alexander Klemm & Carolina Osorio-Buitron, 2024. "Gendered taxes: the interaction of tax policy with gender equality," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 31(5), pages 1413-1460, October.
    10. Sandro Ambuehl & Sebastian Blesse & Philipp Doerrenberg & Christoph Feldhaus & Axel Ockenfels, 2023. "Politicians’ Social Welfare Criteria – An Experiment with German Legislators," ifo Working Paper Series 391, ifo Institute - Leibniz Institute for Economic Research at the University of Munich.
    11. Martin F. Hellwig, 2021. "Social Choice in Large Populations with Single-Peaked Preferences," Discussion Paper Series of the Max Planck Institute for Research on Collective Goods 2021_18, Max Planck Institute for Research on Collective Goods.
    12. João Tovar Jalles & Georgios Karras, 2023. "Tax Progressivity and Output: Evidence from OECD countries," Working Papers REM 2023/0293, ISEG - Lisbon School of Economics and Management, REM, Universidade de Lisboa.
    13. Alessandra Pizzo, 2023. "The welfare effects of tax progressivity with frictional labor markets," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 49, pages 123-146, July.
    14. Jang, Youngsoo, 2021. "Democracy or Optimal Policy: Income Tax Decisions without Commitment," MPRA Paper 110466, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    15. Brendler, Pavel, 2023. "Rising earnings inequality and optimal income tax and social security policies," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 134(C), pages 35-52.
    16. Artige, Lionel & Cavenaile, Laurent, 2023. "Public education expenditures, growth and income inequality," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 209(C).

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    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • E24 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Consumption, Saving, Production, Employment, and Investment - - - Employment; Unemployment; Wages; Intergenerational Income Distribution; Aggregate Human Capital; Aggregate Labor Productivity
    • H21 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Efficiency; Optimal Taxation
    • J24 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity
    • J3 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs
    • J31 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs - - - Wage Level and Structure; Wage Differentials

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