Optimal Piecewise Linear Income Taxation

Given its signiÖcance in practice, piecewise linear taxation has received relatively little attention in the literature. This paper o§ers a simple and transparent analysis of its main characteristics. We fully characterize optimal tax parameters for the cases in which budget sets are convex and nonconvex respectively. A numerical analysis of a discrete version of the model shows the circumstances under which each of these cases will hold as a global optimum. We Önd that, given plausible parameter values and wage distributions, the globally optimal tax system is convex, and marginal rate progressivity increases with rising inequality.piecewise linear; income; taxation

Optimal Piecewise Linear Income Taxation

Given its significance in practice, piecewise linear taxation has received relatively little attention in the literature. This paper offers a simple and transparent analysis of its main characteristics. We fully characterize optimal tax parameters for the cases in which budget sets are convex and nonconvex respectively. A numerical analysis of a discrete version of the model shows the circumstances under which each of these cases will hold as a global optimum. We find that, given plausible parameter values and wage distributions, the globally optimal tax system is convex, and marginal rate progressivity increases with rising inequality.piecewise linear, income, taxation

Optimal Piecewise Linear Income Taxation

Given its significance in practice, the piecewise linear tax system seems to have received disproportionately little attention in the literature on optimal income taxation. This paper offers a simple and transparent analysis of its main characteristics.piecewise linear, income, taxation

Conformal Invariance in the Long-Range Ising Model

We consider the question of conformal invariance of the long-range Ising model at the critical point. The continuum description is given in terms of a nonlocal field theory, and the absence of a stress tensor invalidates all of the standard arguments for the enhancement of scale invariance to conformal invariance. We however show that several correlation functions, computed to second order in the epsilon expansion, are nontrivially consistent with conformal invariance. We proceed to give a proof of conformal invariance to all orders in the epsilon expansion, based on the description of the long-range Ising model as a defect theory in an auxiliary higher-dimensional space. A detailed review of conformal invariance in the d-dimensional short-range Ising model is also included and may be of independent interest.Comment: 52pp; V2: refs added; V3: ref added, published versio

Political education:The science of democratic citizenship education in the Netherlands and the United States (1920-2020)

Influenced by educational, societal and political developments democratic citizenship education in schools has received growing attention since the early 1990s. This has led to formulation of stricter educational policy in many countries, often based on standardized assessment of democratic knowledge, skills and attitudes. But what counts as ‘democratic citizenship’? How should key values like freedom, equality and solidarity be operationalized in educational settings? At which level should this be done and who has the democratic authority to decide on this? Once debate about democratic citizenship moves beyond good intentions and abstract ideas, it becomes a site for political, scholarly and educational contestation.The recent rise of ‘evidence-based’ democratic citizenship education raises questions about democratic citizenship as an educational goal and the role of the educational sciences in educational policy and curriculum making. To better understand and evaluate the current entanglement of educational science and policy making on democratic citizenship education this dissertation provides a historical and comparative perspective. It investigates howdemocratic citizenship education has been studied scientifically, in interaction with policy and practice, in the United States and the Netherlands over the last hundred years. It presents analyses of theories and practices of democratic education at the experimental schools of Teachers College, New York during the Interbellum; the rise and fall of research traditions in the scientific debate on democracy and education in Pedagogische Studiën since 1920; and the interaction between educational and political discourses in American Civics and Dutch Maatschappijleer textbooks in the second half of the twentieth century

Widely-tunable and ultra-stable hybrid-integrated diode lasers

This thesis describes our investigation into diode lasers based on hybrid integration with frequency-selective waveguide feedback circuits. Deploying intra-cavity ring resonators as feedback filters, implemented using low-loss Si3N4 waveguides, enables single-mode laser operation with wavelength tunability over very wide ranges. Using high-Q ring resonators for cavity length extension is also very effective for improving the laser’s short-term frequency stability, which shows as an ultra-narrow intrinsic (Schawlow-Townes) linewidth. We demonstrate in this thesis that these lasers are also continuously tunable, that the spectral coverage can be extended from the infrared to the visible range, and that these lasers can be frequency locked to optical references to greatly enhance their long-term frequency stability

Dynamics and the gauge/gravity duality

De snaartheorie is de laatste jaren meer en meer een volwaardige tak van onderzoek geworden binnen de theoretische natuurkunde. Een belangrijke doorbraak in de snaartheorie was een concrete implementatie van het zogeheten holografisch principe. In essentie dicteert dit principe dat één dimensie van de ruimtetijd eigenlijk overbodig is in onze beschrijving ervan, net zoals een hologram een driedimensionaal beeld vastlegt op een plat vlak. Hoe dit ‘vergeten' van een dimensie in detail werkt was echter tot dusver alleen duidelijk in evenwichtssituaties. Balt van Rees ontwikkelde in detail de consequenties van het holografisch principe voor niet-evenwichtssituaties. Uiteindelijk moet dit leiden tot een holografische beschrijving van dynamische verschijnselen zoals de explosie van een ster of de vorming van een zwart gat