Publications

SSRN

June 2020
Article

Understanding Different Approaches to Benefit-Based Taxation

By: Robert Scherf and Matthew C. Weinzierl

The normative principle of benefit-based taxation has exerted substantial influence on many areas of public finance, but it has been largely set aside in the modern theoretical approach to optimal income taxation, where welfarist objectives dominate. A prerequisite for... View Details

Keywords: Benefit-based Taxation; Public Goods; Lindahl; Optimal Taxation; Taxation

Article

Popular Acceptance of Inequality Due to Innate Brute Luck and Support for Classical Benefit-based Taxation

U.S. survey respondents' views on distributive justice differ in two specific, related ways from what is conventionally assumed in modern optimal tax research. When expressing their preferences over allocations in stylized, hypothetical scenarios meant to isolate key... View Details

Keywords: Optimal Taxation; Welfarism; Luck; Benefit-based Taxation; Taxation; Equality and Inequality; Attitudes

01 May 2014
Working Paper Summaries

Revisiting the Classical View of Benefit-Based Taxation

Keywords: by Matthew Weinzierl

30 Jan 2019
Working Paper Summaries

Understanding Different Approaches to Benefit-Based Taxation

Keywords: by Robert Scherf and Matthew C. Weinzierl

July 2018
Article

Revisiting the Classical View of Benefit-Based Taxation

By: Matthew Weinzierl

This article incorporates into modern optimal tax theory the classical logic of benefit‐based taxation in which an individual's benefit from the activities of the state is tied to his or her income‐earning ability. First‐best optimal policy is characterized... View Details

Keywords: Taxation; Theory; Policy

24 Sep 2016
News

Popular acceptance of inequality due to brute luck and support for classical benefit-based taxation

2016
Working Paper

Popular Acceptance of Inequality Due to Innate Brute Luck and Support for Classical Benefit-Based Taxation

U.S. survey respondents' views on distributive justice are shown to differ in two specific, related ways from what is conventionally assumed in modern optimal tax research. A large share of respondents, and in some cases a large majority, resist the full equalization... View Details

Keywords: Equality and Inequality; Attitudes; Taxation; Theory; United States

18 Apr 2016
Working Paper Summaries

Popular Acceptance of Morally Arbitrary Luck and Widespread Support for Classical Benefit-Based Taxation

Keywords: by Matthew C. Weinzierl

2021
Working Paper

The Incidence of the Corporate Income Tax Is Irrelevant for Its (Benefit-Based) Justification

Robust support for corporate income taxation is a puzzle for standard tax theory because the tax’s incidence is uncertain and unreliable. We propose a resolution: if the corporate tax is seen as a benefit-based tax, its normative appeal depends on the correspondence... View Details

Keywords: Corporate Income Tax; Benefit-based Taxation; Business Ventures; Taxation

Book Review

Review of Global Tax Fairness edited by Thomas Pogge and Krishen Mehta

This timely volume (Global Tax Fairness, edited by Thomas Pogge and Krishen Mehta) on the proper taxation of multinational enterprises argues that several feasible, near-term reforms could substantially narrow the scope for tax avoidance by closing information gaps,... View Details

Keywords: Taxation; Global Range; Policy; Fairness

11 Sep 2018
First Look

New Research and Ideas, September 11, 2018

particularly when such concerns are heightened (Studies 5 & 6). Publisher's link: https://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Pages/item.aspx?num=54782 July 2018 Economic Journal Revisiting the Classical View of Benefit-Based View Details

Keywords: Dina Gerdeman

Research Summary

Overview