{"author":{"id":"74223985","location":"","name":"Virgiliu Midrigan","seoDescription":"","slug":"virgiliu-midrigan"},"authorSources":[{"id":"74223986","lede":"Given an unequal economy, this paper examines the most efficient strategies for redistribution. They use an econometric model that reproduces the levels of income and wealth inequality in the United States. They find that increasing marginal income and wealth taxes raises welfare incrementally, but a flat tax combined with universal transfer achieves nearly optimal welfare improvements.","link":"https://www.nber.org/papers/w27622","slug":"efficient-redistribution","kind":"Academic Paper","title":"Efficient Redistribution","year":"2021-03-01","researchers":[{"id":"74223980","location":"","name":"Corina Boar","seoDescription":"","slug":"corina-boar"},{"id":"74223985","location":"","name":"Virgiliu Midrigan","seoDescription":"","slug":"virgiliu-midrigan"},{"id":"74233724","location":"","name":"Keith A. Bender","seoDescription":"","slug":"keith-a-bender"}]}],"sourceIds":["74223986"],"authorSourcesInsights":[{"id":"74226643","lede":"The authors use a dynamic general equilibrium model with uninsurable idiosyncratic risk, and replicate the distribution of income and wealth in the United States. Increasing marginal income and wealth taxes raise welfare incrementally, but a uniform tax on capital and labor, combined with a lump-sum transfer, achieves nearly optimal levels of welfare improvement.","slug":"given-an-unequal-economy-a-uniform-flat-tax-on-capital-and-labor-income-is-a-near","title":"Given an unequal economy, a uniform flat tax on capital & labor income is a nearly optimal mode of redistribution","showTitleAsQuote":null,"epistemicStatus":"empirical","reports":[{"id":"19519421","title":"Basic Income","slug":"basic-income"}],"tags":[{"slug":"efficiency","name":"Efficiency","id":"72743745","lede":"

In general, efficiency refers to maximizing outputs while minimizing inputs.

\n\n

In economic contexts, there are two main types of efficiency: microeconomic efficiency (where system efficiency is understood as maximizing a particular output given available inputs), and the efficient-market hypothesis (a state where asset prices reflect all available information).

\n","ledeExcerpt":"In general, efficiency refers to maximizing outputs while minimizing inputs. \n\nIn economic contexts, there are two main types of efficiency: microeconomic efficiency (where system efficiency is understood as maximizing a particular output given available inputs), and the efficient-market hypothesis (a state where asset prices reflect all available information).","featured":true},{"slug":"inequality","name":"Inequality","id":"69359341","lede":"","ledeExcerpt":"","featured":null},{"slug":"growth","name":"Growth","id":"23932836","lede":"

We define growth as the expansion of wealth in society; growth is about generating a "a bigger pie".

\n\n

Amidst debates over the merits of continued growth, we begin with the idea that all else equal, a society with growth, with more wealth, is preferable to one with less. Without growth, society becomes a zero-sum distributional game: anyone's gain is another's loss. Growth (all else equal) enables shared prosperity.

\n\n

But there is broad agreement that current measures of growth, such as GDP, are inadequate to the task of providing a suitable proxy to guide further growth. Whether devising improved measures that account for missing elements such as sustainability, equity, leisure time, or digital value, or constructing altogether new proxies (OECD's Better Life Index, for example), the conversation about how best to measure, and thus drive, equitable, regenerative, socially desirable growth is a rich field of debate.

\n","ledeExcerpt":"We define growth as the expansion of wealth in society; growth is about generating a \"a bigger pie\".\n\nAmidst debates over the merits of continued growth, we begin with the idea that *all else equal*, a society with growth, with more wealth, is preferable to one with less. Without growth, society becomes a zero-sum distributional game: anyone's gain is another's loss. Growth (all else equal) enables shared prosperity.\n\nBut there is broad agreement that current measures of growth, such as GDP, are inadequate to the task of providing a suitable proxy to guide further growth. Whether devising revised measures, such as Tyler Cowen's notion of wealth plus\" (GDP, plus measures of leisure time, household production, and environmental considerations), or constructing altogether new proxies (OECD's 'Better Life Index), the conversation about how best to measure, and thus drive, equitable, regenerative, socially desirable growth is a rich field of debate.","featured":true},{"slug":"redistribution","name":"Redistribution","id":"74016537","lede":"","ledeExcerpt":"","featured":null}],"sources":[{"id":"74223986","lede":"Given an unequal economy, this paper examines the most efficient strategies for redistribution. They use an econometric model that reproduces the levels of income and wealth inequality in the United States. They find that increasing marginal income and wealth taxes raises welfare incrementally, but a flat tax combined with universal transfer achieves nearly optimal welfare improvements.","link":"https://www.nber.org/papers/w27622","slug":"efficient-redistribution","kind":"Academic Paper","title":"Efficient Redistribution","year":"2021-03-01","researchers":[{"id":"74223980","location":"","name":"Corina Boar","seoDescription":"","slug":"corina-boar"},{"id":"74223985","location":"","name":"Virgiliu Midrigan","seoDescription":"","slug":"virgiliu-midrigan"},{"id":"74233724","location":"","name":"Keith A. Bender","seoDescription":"","slug":"keith-a-bender"}]}]}]}