Optimal redistribution with unobservable disability: welfarist versus non-welfarist social objectives

This paper examines the optimal non linear income and commodity tax when the same labor disutility can receive two alternative interpretations, taste for leisure and disability, but the disability is not readily observable. We compare the optimal policyunder alternative social objectives, welfarist and non-welfarist, and conclude that the non-welfarist objective, in which the planner gives a higher weight to the disutility of labour of the disabled individuals, is the only reasonable specification. It has some foundation in the theory of responsability; further, unlike the other specifications it yields an optimal solution that may involve a lower labour supply requirement from disabled individuals.optimal non-linear taxation, quasi-linear preferences, asymmetric information, responsibility

Voting on income-contingent loans for higher education

We consider risk-averse individuals who differ in two characteristics - ability to benefit from education and inherited wealth - and analyze higher education participation under two alternative financing schemes - tax subsidy and (risk-sharing) income-contingent loans. With decreasing absolute risk aversion, wealthier individuals are more likely to undertake higher education despite the fact that, according to the stylized financing schemes we consider, individuals do not pay any up-front financial cost of education. We then determine which financing scheme arises when individuals are allowed to vote between schemes. We show that the degree of risk aversion plays a crucial role in determining which financing scheme obtains a majority, and that the composition of the support group for each financing scheme can be of two different types.

An efficiency argument for affirmative action in higher education

We consider a dynamic framework in which generations are linked by educational background. In particular, individuals differ in ability to benefit from education, parental education and appurtenance to a group (either a disadvantaged minority or a non-minority). The individual decision to undertake education is inefficient because people fail to account for the fact that their getting education increases the chances that their children will also gain access to education. This intergenerational externality is higher for people from the disadvantaged minority, provided that the difference in expected utility for children of uneducated and educated individuals is larger within this group. This provides an argument for affirmative action in higher education, in the form of larger subsidies to individuals from the minority group, which is exclusively based on efficiency considerations.Affirmative action, intergenerational externality.

Financing schemes for higher education

Most industrial countries have traditionally subsidized the provision of higher education. Several alternative financing schemes, which rely on larger contributions from students, are being increasingly adopted. Schemes such as income contingent loans, like the Australian Higher Education Contribution Scheme (HECS), provide insurance against uncertain educational outcomes. This paper analyses alternative financing schemes for higher education, with particular emphasis on the insurance role and its effect on higher education participation.

An efficiency argument for affirmative action in higher education

In a dynamic framework in which generations are linked by educational background, we identify an intergenerational externality that is larger for disadvantaged groups. This provides an argument for affirmative action in higher education based on efficiency alone.

Unequal wages for equal utilities

When educational policy is supplemented by a redistributive income tax, and when individualsdiffer in their ability to benefit from education, the optimal policy is typically rather regressive.Resources are concentrated on the most able individuals in order to get a "cake" as big aspossible to share among individuals through income taxation. In this paper we put forwardanother reason to push for regressive education. It is not linked to heterogeneity in innate ability to benefit from education but to pervasive non-convexities that arise in the optimal income tax problem when individual productivities are endogenous. For simplicity we assume a lineareducation technology and a given total education budget. To give the equal wage outcome thebest chance to emerge, we also assume that individuals have identical learning abilities.Nevertheless, it turns out that in the first-best wage inequality is always preferable to wageequality. Even more surprisingly, this conclusion remains valid in the second-best (unless adhoc restriction on the feasible degree of a wage differentiation are imposed). This is in spite ofthe fact that wage equalization would eliminate any need for distortionary income taxation.education policy, optimal income taxation, equal opportunity

Optimal educational choice and redistribution when cultural background matters

Higher education plays an important role in determining lifetime earnings. In turn, the decision to become educated depends to a large extent on family characteristics, such as wealth and cultural background. In this paper, we focus on the interaction between fiscal policies and educational choices when cultural background matters. We derive optimality conditions for a linear income tax and a lump-sum subsidy for education in a dynamic framework in which generations are linked by cultural background. The factors that determine their sign and magnitude include concerns for redistribution, efficiency, and the educational externality on future generationsOptimal linear income tax, Subsidies, Higher education, Educational background

Ciencia e historia en Leibniz.

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Voting on pensions : sex and marriage

Existing political economy models of pensions focus on age and productivity. In this paper we incorporate two additional individual characteristics: sex and marital status. We ignore the role of age, by assuming that people vote at the start of their life, and characterize the preferred rate of taxation that finances a Beveridgean pension scheme when individuals differ in wage, sex and marital status. We allow for two types of couples: one-breadwinner and two-breadwinner couples. Marriage pools both wage and longevity differences between men and women. Hence singles tend to have more extreme preferred tax rates than couples. We show that the majority voting outcome depends on the relative number of one-breadwinner couples and on the size of derived pension rights.social security, differential longevity, majority voting, individualization of pension rights