[position in research by date]
[position in research by subject]
"The Optimal Distribution of Income," The
Quarterly Journal
of Economics, November 1971, 551-579.
pdf file (1,512KB).
Abstract
None
Comments
This paper along with a paper by James Mirrlees, "An Exploration in the
Optimal Theory of Income Taxation," Review of Economic Studies,
April 1971, 38, 175-208, led to a fairly large literature on optimal
taxation. The paper by Mirrlees has been cited much more than mine, but
both papers developed an optimal income taxation framework. Both papers
are given equal weight in George Akerlof's paper, "The Economics of
'Tagging' as Applied to the Optimal Income Tax, Welfare Programs, and
Manpower Planning," The American Economic Review, March 1978,
68, 8-19.