Optimal Dynamic Nonlinear Income Taxes with No Commitment

We wish to study optimal dynamic nonlinear income taxes. Do real world taxes share some of their features? What policy prescriptions can be made? We study a two period model, where the consumers and government each have separate budget constraints in the two periods, so income cannot be transferred between periods. Labor supply in both periods is chosen by the consumers. The government has memory, so taxes in the first period are a function of first period labor income, whereas taxes in the second period are a function of both first and second period labor income. The government cannot commit to future taxes. Time consistency is thus imposed as a requirement. The main results of the paper show that time consistent incentive compatible two period taxes involve separation of types in the first period and a differentiated lump sum tax in the second period, provided that the discount rate is high or utility is separable between labor and consumption. In the natural extension of the Diamond (1998) model with quasi-linear utility functions to two periods, an equivalence of dynamic and static optimal taxes is demonstrated, and a necessary condition for the top marginal tax rate on first period income is found.Optimal Income Taxation; Time Consistency; Incentive Compatibility; Sequential Information Revelation; Optimal Dynamic Taxation

Doorbell Fitching

There’s the typical... make a plate of cookies and then you put either tin foil or saran wrap on them. And then you tie on a fishing wire- the clear fishing wire- and then you tie it to uh, the fishing pole and then you’d go around the corner or wherever. Then you’d have someone go up and knock on the door and then run away. And so then they come up to the door and they’re like, “Ohh!!! Somebody left me a plate of COOKIES!” And then they-! And then they lean over and go to grab it [laughing] and you like… start to reel it in… and then they’re like, “[GASP]…! My cookies!!” [laughing again.] And sometimes they just like, sit there and stare at the cookies… like, you know, thinking “Are they gonna... DO anything…?” But SOME people, like, start to CHASE after it and you’re like reeling it in- [breaks off laughing. Pause.] And at some point you just have to pick up the cookies and then start running, cause at that point they’re mad at you. [Laughing again.

Implications of Small Group Instruction for Overage Secondary Students\u27 Academic Performance

In a secondary school in a southeastern state a large number of overage students who are at least 2 grade levels behind where they should be in academic terms, have struggled with academic performance and have often dropped out of school. Educational researchers have found that the implementation of instructional interventions is important in meeting the learning needs of these students. The purpose of this bounded case study was to determine educators\u27 perspectives of possible intervention strategies to improve the academic performance of overage students in grades 9 and 10 at the school. Constructivism was used as the conceptual framework. The research questions were focused on what teachers, counselors, and administrators viewed as the best possible intervention for improving the academic performance of overage students at the school. Interviews were conducted with 4 classroom teachers, 2 counselors, and 2 administrators who had worked with overage students at the school. Interview data were coded and analyzed for common themes. Participants identified small group instruction as the best possible instructional intervention to support constructivist learning for overage students. Using study findings, a policy white paper was created for local school officials and administrators, which included the recommendation that small group instruction be used for overage students along monitoring student progress by a school leadership team. Implementation of the recommendations may help overage students at the study site improve their critical thinking, problem-solving, and decision making skills which may result in positive social change as they experience academic success and become productive members of the school and larger surrounding community

D&D: Lucky Dice

One of the weirdest superstitions I have about Dungeons and Dragons is about the luck of the dice. Like, it’s completely random and all players recognize that, but there’s definitely an understanding in groups that certain d20s have certain streaks of luck. You can test your “luck” before the game starts by repeatedly throwing your dice to see what rolls you get. If you get a lot of low numbers, you’re probably in trouble. Most players joke at that point that at least you’re getting the unlucky rolls “out” of your dice before you start playing. To fix the luck of your dice, you can either switch dice (sometimes borrowing someone else’s), or you can try to sweet talk the dice that you have. Usually you only do that if it’s your own dice, though. Something I do to fix my d20 when I really need good luck on the next roll is I’ll take my die in my hand and whisper sweet things to it, like, you’re my favorite die, come on I know you can do it, I love you and I really need this roll, pleeease please please. And then I kiss it, sometimes twice if I’m desperate. Just quick little pecks nothing weird or anything. I just show the dice that I love it and really care about it so that it will give me a good roll. If I get a bad roll I really try my best not to get mad at my dice so that it doesn’t hold a grudge. Of course like I said I know that this is just a superstition and the dice wouldn’t respond to this tactic. But sometimes I swear it works. Or I feel like it does. I’m definitely not the only player that does this, I have one friend in particular who also sweet talks his dice quite often, although I haven’t seen anyone else kiss their dice. (I do do it behind my hands though so no one sees, so you never know I suppose. If my dice is reading this, you are the best d20 so please don’t give me bad luck thanks I love you

D&D: Low Constitution

Why does America spend so much on defense? They only have one Constitution

D&D: Holy Paladin

Q: Why do paladins prefer chainmail? A: It’s holey armor

D&D: Classy

Q: What’s the difference between a wizard and a sorcerer? A: Class

D&D: Sword of Plus One

Why did the fighter insist on bringing his sword to the big gala? He said it was his +1

Paper Skeletons

So there’s one time when um, we… what did we do… we had like this, paper skeleton that glowed in the dark. And we taped it on to… well we kind of made this black dummy thing and then taped it onto them. And then we’d wait for cars to- we were hiding in a tree, and we’d wait for cars to come, and then we threw it out of the tree in front of the car, and the person would think that they hit someone. [Laughs]. That was pretty mean... Or- [breaks off laughing.] There was this time when we would, similar thing, we’d get the same skeleton glow-in-the-dark-thing and we taped it to the front of Lance. He was wearing black clothes and he’d kinda lay on the ground over at the cemetery. We’d have him lay in a certain spot at the cemetery and then we’d um… talk someone into coming, [laughing] it was usually like, “Hey let’s go play tag at the cemetery!” or whatever we’d do at night. Um so then we’d go over and talk them into going to the cemetery and we’d walk them by the, the specific spot that we knew Lance was at. And then as we’d walk them by he’d all of a sudden JUMP up and go, “HUAAAAAAAAAH!!” And they of course would SCREAM and go running away... [laughing, then a pause to take a deep breath.] Good times…. [Starts laughing again.