Consistent Income Tax Structures When Households Are Heterogeneous

Author: Ebert U.   Moyes P.  

Publisher: Academic Press

ISSN: 0022-0531

Source: Journal of Economic Theory, Vol.90, Iss.1, 2000-01, pp. : 116-150

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Abstract

The paper examines the redistributive impact of income taxation for heterogeneous populations. An equivalent income function is introduced in order to adjust the incomes of different types of households and the redistributive performance of the tax system is evaluated by comparing the Lorenz curves of the distributions of before and after tax equivalent incomes. Inequality reduction after tax imposes mild consistency conditions which are met by most current tax systems. If the inequality reducing effect of taxation is required to be independent of the reference household type, then the structure of the equivalent income function is fully determined by the inequality concept. Journal of Economic Literature Classification Numbers: D31, D63, H24. Copyright 2000 Academic Press.