TY  - JOUR
AU  - Slemrod,Joel
TI  - The Economics of Taxing the Rich
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 6584
PY  - 1998
Y2  - May 1998
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w6584
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w6584.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
Joel Slemrod
University of Michigan Business School
701 Tappan Street
Room R5396
Ann Arbor, MI  48109-1234
Tel: 734/936-3914
Fax: 734-615-4323
E-Mail: jslemrod@umich.edu
AB  - How much and how to tax high-income individuals is at the core of many recent proposals for incremental as well as fundamental tax reform.  This paper critically reviews the economics literature and concludes that the right answer to these questions depends in part on value judgments about which economics has little to contribute, but also depends on standard economics concerns such as the process generating income and wealth, and whether wealth individuals' economic activities have positive (or negative) externalities.  How much and how to tax the rich also depends critically on how they will respond to attempts to tax them because, other things equal, it is wise to limit the extent to which they are induced to pursue less socially productive activities in order to avoid taxes.
ER  -