We develop a methodology to sign output distortions in the random participation framework. We apply our method to monopoly nonlinear pricing problem, to the regulatory monopoly problem and mainly to the optimal income tax problem. In the latter framework, individuals are heterogeneous across two...

In this article, the joint use of an income tax and public provision of education as instruments to achieve the government's distributional objectives are considered. Individuals differ in innate labour productivity and in aptitude to acquire skills through education. Actual labour productivity...

Tax competition between two governments who choose nonlinear income tax schedules to maximize the average utility of its residents when skills are unobservable and labor is perfectly mobile is examined. We show that there are no Nash equilibria in which there is a skill type that pays positive...