Skip to main content

Welfare or Pareto-Improving Directions of Piecemeal Tax Reform

  • Conference paper
Models and Measurement of Welfare and Inequality
  • 252 Accesses

Abstract

The reform of commodity taxes with a given immutable general income tax schedule is investigated. The main focus is on tax reforms which are Pareto-improving from the status quo, without recourse to lump-sum transfers. To identify feasible welfare-improving directions, we interpret the gradient projection algorithm for the adjustment of tax rates within our setting and connect the work of Tirole and Guesnerie with that of Ahmad and Stern. The so-called “inverse optimum problem” allows to infer the existence of a variety of feasible Pareto-improving directions.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 84.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 109.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Preview

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

References

  • Ahmad, S.E. and N.H. Stern, 1984, The theory of tax reform and Indian indirect taxes, Journal of Public Economics 25, 259–298.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Auerbach, A.J., 1985, The theory of excess burden and optimal taxation in: Auerbach, A.J. and M.S. Feldstein, eds., Handbook of Public Economics, Vol. I ( North-Holland, Amsterdam ), 61–127.

    Google Scholar 

  • Corlett, W.J. and D.C. Hague, 1953, Complementarity and the excess burden of taxation, Review of Economic Studies 21, 21–30.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Diamond, P.A. and J.A. Mirrlees, 1971, Optimal taxation and public production: I and II, American Economic Review 61, 8-27, 261–278.

    Google Scholar 

  • Diewert, W.E., 1978, Optimal tax perturbations, Journal of Public Economics 10, 139–177.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dixit, A.K., 1975, Welfare effects of tax and price changes, Journal of Public Economics 4, 103–123.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dixit, A.K., 1979, Price changes and optimum taxation in a many-person economy, Journal of Public Economics 11, 143–157.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Feldstein, M.S., 1976a, On the theory of tax reform, Journal of Public Economics 6, 77–104.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Feldstein, M.S., 1976b, Compensation in tax reform, National Tax Journal 29, 123–130.

    Google Scholar 

  • Guesnerie, R., 1977, On the direction of tax reform, Journal of Public Economics 7, 179–202.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Guesnerie, R., 1979, Financing public goods with commodity taxes: the tax reform viewpoint, Econometrica 47, 393–412.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Harris, R.G, 1979, Efficient commodity taxation, Journal of Public Economics 12, 27–39.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Haller, H. and C.-C. Yang, 1989, The Ramsey rule for optimal commodity taxes with given income tax schedule, Mimeo.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kanbur, S.M.R., and G.D. Myles, 1990, Policy reform and political constraints: an economic analysis, Discussion Paper 100, Development Economics Research Centre, University of Warwick.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mangasarian, O.L., 1969, Nonlinear Progamming ( McGraw-Hill, New York).

    Google Scholar 

  • Smith, A., 1983, Tax reform and temporary inefficiency, Journal of Public Economics 20, 265–270.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tirole, J. and R. Guesnerie, 1981, Tax reform from the gradient projection viewpoint, Journal of Public Economics 15, 175–193.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Weymark, J.A., 1978, On Pareto-improving price changes, Journal of Economic Theory 19, 338–346.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Weymark, J.A., 1979, A reconciliation of recent results in optimal taxation theory, Journal of Public Economics 12, 171–189.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Weymark, J.A., 1981, Undominated direction of tax reform, Journal of Public Economics 16, 343–369.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wibaut, S., 1987, A model of tax reform for Belgium, Journal of Public Economics 32, 53–77.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Yang, C.C. and H. Haller, 1993, On directions of commodity tax reform in the presence of a given nonlinear income tax schedule, The Canadian Journal of Economics 26, 470–481.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zodrow, G.R., 1981, Implementing tax reform, National Tax Journal 34, 401–418.

    Google Scholar 

  • Zodrow, G.R., 1985, Optimal tax reform in the presence of adjustment costs, Journal of Public Economics 27, 211–230.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 1994 Springer-Verlag Berlin · Heidelberg

About this paper

Cite this paper

Haller, H., Yang, CC. (1994). Welfare or Pareto-Improving Directions of Piecemeal Tax Reform. In: Eichhorn, W. (eds) Models and Measurement of Welfare and Inequality. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-79037-9_16

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-79037-9_16

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-642-79039-3

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-642-79037-9

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

Publish with us

Policies and ethics