CFDP 1662
Pareto Improving Taxes
Author(s):Publication Date: May 2008
Pages: 28
Abstract:
We show that in almost every economy with separable externalities, every competitive equilibrium can be Pareto improved by a package of anonymous commodity taxes that causes prices to adjust and markets to reclear at different levels of individual consumption. This constrained suboptimality of competitive allocations might provide a rationale for economic policy in economies with externalities. It shows that policy makers should look for good tax packages that help everybody, rather than thinking taxes must inevitably be bad for some lobby that will oppose them.
Keywords:
Externalities, Commodity taxes, Constrained suboptimality
JEL Classification Codes: D50, D60, D62, D82
See CFP: 1235