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- All HBS Web (91)
- Faculty Publications (43)
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- All HBS Web (91)
- Faculty Publications (43)
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- 17 Jul 2012
- Working Paper Summaries
Why Do We Redistribute So Much but Tag So Little? The Principle of Equal Sacrifice and Optimal Taxation
Keywords: by Matthew Weinzierl
- 01 May 2014
- Working Paper Summaries
Revisiting the Classical View of Benefit-Based Taxation
Keywords: by Matthew Weinzierl
- February 2014 (Revised August 2015)
- Case
The Estate Tax Debate
By: Matthew Weinzierl, Katrina Flanagan and Valerie Galinskaya
Per dollar of revenue, no tax policy generates more sound and fury than the taxation of estates. To supporters, the tax is a break on the concentration of wealth and power and an easy way to fund redistribution. To opponents, the tax is an unjust punishment of the... View Details
Keywords: Atkinson-Stiglitz; Optimal Capital Taxation; Bequest Motives; Taxation; Family and Family Relationships; Property
Weinzierl, Matthew, Katrina Flanagan, and Valerie Galinskaya. "The Estate Tax Debate." Harvard Business School Case 714-032, February 2014. (Revised August 2015.)
- 2022
- Working Paper
Optimal Illiquidity
By: John Beshears, James J. Choi, Christopher Clayton, Christopher Harris, David Laibson and Brigitte C. Madrian
We calculate the socially optimal level of illiquidity in an economy populated by households with taste shocks and naive present bias. The government chooses mandatory contributions to accounts, each witha different pre-retirement withdrawal penalty. Collected... View Details
Keywords: Illiquidity; Commitment; Flexibility; Savings; Social Security; Retirement; Government Legislation; Taxation; Saving
Beshears, John, James J. Choi, Christopher Clayton, Christopher Harris, David Laibson, and Brigitte C. Madrian. "Optimal Illiquidity." Working Paper, July 2022.
- Article
An Exploration of Optimal Stabilization Policy
By: N. Gregory Mankiw and Matthew C. Weinzierl
This paper examines the optimal response of monetary and fiscal policy to a decline in aggregate demand. The theoretical framework is a two-period general equilibrium model in which prices are sticky in the short-run and flexible in the long-run. Policy is evaluated by... View Details
Keywords: Fiscal Policy; Monetary Policy; Economic Models; Aggregate Demand; Demand and Consumers; Money; Mathematical Methods; Taxation; Spending; Policy; Welfare; Household; Economic Slowdown and Stagnation
Mankiw, N. Gregory, and Matthew C. Weinzierl. "An Exploration of Optimal Stabilization Policy." Brookings Papers on Economic Activity (Spring 2011). (Also Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 11-113, May 2011 and NBER Working Paper Series, No. 17029, May 2011.)
- October 2014
- Article
The Promise of Positive Optimal Taxation: Normative Diversity and a Role for Equal Sacrifice
A prominent assumption in modern optimal tax research is that the objective of taxation is Utilitarian. I present new survey evidence that most people disagree with this assumption, preferring tax policies based at least in part on a classic alternative objective: the... View Details
Weinzierl, Matthew. "The Promise of Positive Optimal Taxation: Normative Diversity and a Role for Equal Sacrifice." Journal of Public Economics 118 (October 2014): 128–142. (Also NBER Working Paper Series, No. 18599.)
- 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
- 08 Sep 2009
- Research & Ideas
The Height Tax, and Other New Ways to Think about Taxation
less burdensome for all citizens. "While the idea of a height tax follows directly from the standard economic framework for tax analysis, most people find the idea crazy," allows HBS professor Matthew C. Weinzierl, an economist who studies View Details
Keywords: by Martha Lagace
- 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
Weinzierl, Matthew C. "Popular Acceptance of Inequality Due to Innate Brute Luck and Support for Classical Benefit-Based Taxation." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 16-104, March 2016. (Revised July 2016. Also NBER Working Paper Series, No. 22462, July 2016. Also see Notes on Fortune article. Accepted for publication by the Journal of Public Economics.)
- 2014
- Working Paper
De Gustibus non est Taxandum: Heterogeneity in Preferences and Optimal Redistribution
By: Benjamin B Lockwood and Matthew Weinzierl
The prominent but unproven intuition that preference heterogeneity reduces redistribution in a standard optimal tax model is shown to hold under the plausible condition that the distribution of preferences for consumption relative to leisure rises, in terms of... View Details
Lockwood, Benjamin B., and Matthew Weinzierl. "De Gustibus non est Taxandum: Heterogeneity in Preferences and Optimal Redistribution." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 12-063, January 2012. (Updated September 2014. NBER Working Paper Series, No. 17784. Published in Journal of Public Economics.)
- Article
De Gustibus non est Taxandum: Heterogeneity in Preferences and Optimal Redistribution
By: Benjamin B Lockwood and Matthew Weinzierl
The prominent but unproven intuition that preference heterogeneity reduces redistribution in a standard optimal tax model is shown to hold under the plausible condition that the distribution of preferences for consumption relative to leisure rises, in terms of... View Details
Keywords: Motivation and Incentives; Income; Decision Choices and Conditions; Consumer Behavior; Taxation; Microeconomics; Macroeconomics
Lockwood, Benjamin B., and Matthew Weinzierl. "De Gustibus non est Taxandum: Heterogeneity in Preferences and Optimal Redistribution." Journal of Public Economics 124 (April 2015): 74–80. (Also NBER Working Paper Series, No. 17784, September 2014 and Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 12-063, January 2012.)
- 15 Jan 2013
- Working Paper Summaries
The Promise of Positive Optimal Taxation: A Generalized Theory Calibrated to Survey Evidence on Normative Preferences Explains Puzzling Features of Policy
Keywords: by Matthew Weinzierl
- September 2017
- Article
The Real Effects of Capital Controls: Firm-Level Evidence from a Policy Experiment
By: Laura Alfaro, Anusha Chari and Fabio Kanczuk
Emerging-market governments adopted capital control taxes to manage the massive surge in foreign capital inflows in the aftermath of the global financial crisis. Theory suggests that the imposition of capital controls can drive up the cost of capital and curb... View Details
Keywords: Capital Controls; Discriminatory Taxation; International Investment Barriers; Exports; Debt; Cost of Capital; Taxation; Investment; Borrowing and Debt; Equity; Brazil
Alfaro, Laura, Anusha Chari, and Fabio Kanczuk. "The Real Effects of Capital Controls: Firm-Level Evidence from a Policy Experiment." Journal of International Economics 108 (September 2017): 191–210. (Also see NBER Working Paper 20726.
See comment in Brookings Series: The Hutchins Roundup.
See also, feature in NBER Digest March 2015 issue. )
- July 2016
- Article
Taxation, Corruption, and Growth
By: Philippe Aghion, Ufuk Akcigit, Julia Cagé and William R. Kerr
We build an endogenous growth model to analyze the relationships between taxation, corruption, and economic growth. Entrepreneurs lie at the center of the model and face disincentive effects from taxation but acquire positive benefits from public infrastructure.... View Details
Keywords: Endogenous Growth; Public Goods; Corruption; Crime and Corruption; Entrepreneurship; Taxation; Economic Growth
Aghion, Philippe, Ufuk Akcigit, Julia Cagé, and William R. Kerr. "Taxation, Corruption, and Growth." Special Issue on The Economics of Entrepreneurship. European Economic Review 86 (July 2016): 24–51.
- 2009
- Working Paper
Stretching the Inelastic Rubber: Taxation, Welfare and Lobbies in Amazonia, 1870-1910
By: Felipe Tamega Fernandes
This paper examines the effect of government intervention via taxation on domestic welfare. A case-study of Brazilian market power on rubber markets during the boom years of 1870-1910 shows that the government generated 1.3% of GDP through an export tax on rubber but... View Details
Keywords: Government Legislation; Taxation; Business and Government Relations; Welfare or Wellbeing; Rubber Industry; Brazil
Fernandes, Felipe Tamega. "Stretching the Inelastic Rubber: Taxation, Welfare and Lobbies in Amazonia, 1870-1910." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 10-032, October 2009.
- January 2011
- Article
Building a Better America—One Wealth Quintile at a Time
By: Michael I. Norton and Dan Ariely
Disagreements about the optimal level of wealth inequality underlie policy debates ranging from taxation to welfare. We attempt to insert the desires of "regular" Americans into these debates, by asking a nationally representative online panel to estimate the current... View Details
Keywords: Taxation; Policy; Perspective; Wealth; Equality and Inequality; Income; Demography; Debates; Welfare; Diversity; Philanthropy and Charitable Giving; United States
Norton, Michael I., and Dan Ariely. "Building a Better America—One Wealth Quintile at a Time." Perspectives on Psychological Science 6, no. 1 (January 2011): 9–12.
- Research Summary
Paper - Stretching the Inelastic Rubber: Taxation, Welfare and Lobbies in Amazonia, 1870-1910 (Job Market Paper)
This paper examines the effect of government intervention via taxation on domestic welfare. A case-study of Brazilian market power on rubber markets during the boom years of 1870-1910 shows that the government generated 1.3% of GDP through an export tax on rubber... View Details
- 29 Nov 2016
- Working Paper Summaries
Fiscal Risk and the Portfolio of Government Programs
- 2024
- Working Paper
Trade Policy in the Shadow of Conflict: The Case of Dual-use Goods
By: Maxim Alekseev and Xinyue Lin
Policymakers increasingly use trade instruments to address national security concerns. This paper studies optimal policy for dual-use goods, items with both military and civilian applications. We begin by documenting that regulation and trade flows of dual-use goods... View Details
- 13 Jul 2012
- Working Paper Summaries
De Gustibus non est Taxandum: Theory and Evidence on Preference Heterogeneity and Redistribution
Keywords: by Benjamin Lockwood & Matthew Weinzierl