On December 11, 2014, Senate Finance Committee member Benjamin L. Cardin, D-Md., introduced S. 3005, the Progressive Consumption Tax Act of 2014, which calls for the adoption of a 10 percent VAT. The adoption of a VAT would have far-reaching effects on the economy, including the Social Security...

We examine the features of taxes and transfers that make them redistributive, emphasizing the distinct roles played by the progressivity of taxes and transfers and their size. A tax system's progressivity measures the extent to which taxes are a larger share of income for higher-income...

The amount of redistribution induced by a fiscal system depends on both its progressivity and its size of a fiscal system. Policymakers can induce any given amount of redistribution through a larger tax-and-transfer system with limited progressivity or through a smaller tax-and-transfer system...

We present a more thorough analysis of the progressivity and regressivity of tax increases and spending reductions. Our analysis highlights an important distinction between low-end and high-end progressivity. We refer to a policy as having low-end progressivity if it places smaller burdens...