Wealthy individuals often voluntarily provide public goods that the poor also consume. Such philanthropy is perceived as legitimizing one's wealth. Governments routinely exempt the rich from taxation on grounds of their charitable expenditure. We examine the normative logic of this exemption. We...

The standard theory of anti - poverty targeting assumes individual incomes cannot be observed, but statistical properties of income distribution in broadly defined groups are known. "Indicator targeting" rules are then derived for the forms of transfers conditioned on group membership of...

We develop an integrated, general equilibrium, model of how the presence of vertical ties of "community" between sections of workers and sections of capitalists can critically affect the distribution of income between capitalists as a class and workers as a class, as well as between workers...

We investigate how voluntary contributions to community-specific public goods affect (a) the relationship between inequality of incomes and inequality of welfare outcomes, and (b) individuals' material incentives fo r supporting income redistribution. We show that the nominal distribution of...

We analyze conflicts between communities. A community-specific public good, to which members make voluntary contributions, defines communities. Some, but not all, members of one community may contribute towards another community's public good. Such ‘bridging’ contributions will not occur...

We analyze conflicts between communities. A community-specific public good, to which members make voluntary contributions, defines communities. Some, but not all, members of one community may contribute towards another community's public good. Such 'bridging' contributions will not occur when...