Existing numerical characterizations of the optimal income tax have been based on a limited number of model specifications. As a result, they do not reveal which properties are general. We determine the optimal tax in the quasi-linear model under weaker assumptions than have previously been used;...

Problems of intergovernmental policy coordination can take many forms and are becoming increasingly important with continuing economic integration. In this paper we focus on the fiscal competition problem where the non-cooperative choice of taxes and transfers among governments typically leads...

In this paper we derive the equilibrium level of redistribution from one mobile factor (say, the rich or capital) to another posibly mobile factor (say, the poor or labour) when regions choose both their inter-regional transfers and redistributive policies non-cooperatively. We find that...

The paper analyzes a multi-country extension of the Barro model of productive public expenditure. In the presence of infrastructural externalities between countries the provision of infrastructure will be inefficiently low if countries do not coordinate. This provides a role for a supra-national...

We present a costly voting model in which each voter has a private valuation for their preferred outcome of a vote. When there is a zero cost to voting, all voters vote and hence all values are counted equally regardless of how high they may be. By having a cost to voting, only those with high...