Fairness, Self-Interest, and the Politics of the Progressive Income Tax

All advanced democracies have adopted income taxes with considerable progression in marginal tax rates. To explain this we examine the nature of individual and collective preferences over alternative tax schedules, in the context of a simple two-sector model. We first consider the case of altruistic or "sociotropic" citizens who view the income tax as a means of achieving a fairer or more egalitarian distribution of income. We show that greater marginal-rate progressivity may well be less fair; that a "fairest" tax, however defined, is always a linear or "flat-rate" schedule in which all incomes are taxed at the same marginal rate; and that with a purely sociotropic electorate there exists a flat-rate schedule which is a majority equilibrium. We then show that with "self-interested" voters who seek to minimize their own tax burdens, greater marginal-rate progression may well be preferred by middle-and upper-income voters; that for middle-income citizens the optimal schedule is a sharply progressive one; and that within the set of individually optimal schedules there exists a majority equilibrium, which is a progressive schedule which minimizes the burden on median-income or middle class citizens, at the expense of lower-and upper-income taxpayers

Linearity of the Optimal Income Tax: A Generalization

In an earlier paper, we examined the nature of individual and collective preferences over alternative income tax schedules in the context of a simple model in which individuals respond to high tax rates by working in an untaxed "sheltered" sector of the economy. There we established the social optimality of a linear income tax among the set of tax schedules that are continuous, nondecreasing convex functions of income. Here we relax the restrictions on tax schedules, most importantly allowing schedules to have concave (decreasing marginal tax rate) as well as convex (increasing marginal tax rate) regions. In fact, we prove that a linear income tax is socially preferred to any nonlinear lower semi-continuous tax schedule

Efficient simulation of quantum evolution using dynamical coarse-graining

A novel scheme to simulate the evolution of a restricted set of observables of a quantum system is proposed. The set comprises the spectrum-generating algebra of the Hamiltonian. The idea is to consider a certain open-system evolution, which can be interpreted as a process of weak measurement of the distinguished observables performed on the evolving system of interest. Given that the observables are "classical" and the Hamiltonian is moderately nonlinear, the open system dynamics displays a large time-scales separation between the dephasing of the observables and the decoherence of the evolving state in the basis of the generalized coherent states (GCS), associated with the spectrum-generating algebra. The time scale separation allows the unitary dynamics of the observables to be efficiently simulated by the open-system dynamics on the intermediate time-scale.The simulation employs unraveling of the corresponding master equations into pure state evolutions, governed by the stochastic nonlinear Schroedinger equantion (sNLSE). It is proved that GCS are globally stable solutions of the sNLSE, if the Hamilonian is linear in the algebra elements.Comment: The version submitted to Phys. Rev. A, 28 pages, 3 figures, comments are very welcom

Fairness, Self-Interest, and the Politics of the Progressive Income Tax

All advanced democracies have adopted income taxes with considerable progression in marginal tax rates. To explain this we examine the nature of individual and collective preferences over alternative tax schedules, in the context of a simple two-sector model. We first consider the case of altruistic or "sociotropic" citizens who view the income tax as a means of achieving a fairer or more egalitarian distribution of income. We show that greater marginal-rate progressivity may well be less fair; that a "fairest" tax, however defined, is always a linear or "flat-rate" schedule in which all incomes are taxed at the same marginal rate; and that with a purely sociotropic electorate there exists a flat-rate schedule which is a majority equilibrium. We then show that with "self-interested" voters who seek to minimize their own tax burdens, greater marginal-rate progression may well be preferred by middle-and upper-income voters; that for middle-income citizens the optimal schedule is a sharply progressive one; and that within the set of individually optimal schedules there exists a majority equilibrium, which is a progressive schedule which minimizes the burden on median-income or middle class citizens, at the expense of lower-and upper-income taxpayers

Linearity of the Optimal Income Tax: A Generalization

In an earlier paper, we examined the nature of individual and collective preferences over alternative income tax schedules in the context of a simple model in which individuals respond to high tax rates by working in an untaxed "sheltered" sector of the economy. There we established the social optimality of a linear income tax among the set of tax schedules that are continuous, nondecreasing convex functions of income. Here we relax the restrictions on tax schedules, most importantly allowing schedules to have concave (decreasing marginal tax rate) as well as convex (increasing marginal tax rate) regions. In fact, we prove that a linear income tax is socially preferred to any nonlinear lower semi-continuous tax schedule

ac-Field-Controlled Anderson Localization in Disordered Semiconductor Superlattices

An ac field, tuned exactly to resonance with the Stark ladder in an ideal tight binding lattice under strong dc bias, counteracts Wannier-Stark localization and leads to the emergence of extended Floquet states. If there is random disorder, these states localize. The localization lengths depend non-monotonically on the ac field amplitude and become essentially zero at certain parameters. This effect is of possible relevance for characterizing the quality of superlattice samples, and for performing experiments on Anderson localization in systems with well-defined disorder.Comment: 10 pages, Latex; figures available on request from [email protected]

BMQ

BMQ: Boston Medical Quarterly was published from 1950-1966 by the Boston University School of Medicine and the Massachusetts Memorial Hospitals

Citizen Participation in Urban Services: the Administration of a Community-Based Crime Prevention Program

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/68929/2/10.1177_089976407800700105.pd