Research
Working papers
Redistribution and unemployment insurance. Job Market Paper. [Blog AFSE]
Abstract: This paper analyzes the interactions between redistribution and unemployment insurance policies and their implications for the optimal design of tax-benefit systems. In a setting where individuals with different earnings abilities are exposed to unemployment risk on the labor market, I characterize the optimal income tax schedule and the optimal unemployment benefit schedule in terms of empirically estimable sufficient statistics. I provide a Pareto-efficiency condition for tax-benefit systems that implies a tight link between optimal redistribution and optimal unemployment insurance: the steeper the profile of income taxes is, the flatter the profile of unemployment benefits should be, and vice versa. Optimal replacement rates are therefore monotonically decreasing with earnings, from 1 at the bottom of the earnings distribution to 0 at the top, and redistribution through unemployment benefits is efficient. Empirical applications show that these interactions between redistribution and unemployment insurance have important quantitative implications.
Sufficient statistics for nonlinear tax systems with general across-income heterogeneity (with Ben Lockwood & Dmitry Taubinsky). Conditional Accept. American Economic Review. [Online Appendix]
Abstract: This paper provides general and empirically implementable sufficient statistics formulas for optimal nonlinear tax systems in the presence of across-income heterogeneity in preferences, inheritances, income-shifting capabilities, and other sources. We study unrestricted tax systems on income and savings (or other commodities) that implement the optimal direct-revelation mechanism, as well as simpler tax systems that impose common restrictions like separability between earnings and savings taxes. We characterize the optimum using familiar elasticity concepts and a sufficient statistic for general across-income heterogeneity: the difference between the cross-sectional variation of savings with income, and the causal effect of income on savings. The Atkinson-Stiglitz Theorem is a knife-edge case corresponding to zero difference, and a number of other key results in optimal tax theory are subsumed as special cases. We provide tractable extensions of these results that include multidimensional heterogeneity, additional efficiency rationales for taxing heterogeneous returns, and corrective motives to encourage more saving. Applying these formulas in a calibrated model of the U.S. economy, we find that the optimal savings tax is positive and progressive.
Selected works in progress
Gender differences in the impact of unemployment benefits: Evidence from a RKD in France (with Federica Meluzzi & Arne Uhlendorff).
Optimal taxation and tax complexity with misperceptions (with Jérémy Boccanfuso).
Publications
Inattention and the taxation bias (with Jérémy Boccanfuso). Journal of the European Economic Association, jvad056, 2023. [Journal webpage] ITAX PhD Award at IIPF Conference 2019.
Incentives, globalization, and redistribution (with Andreas Haufler & Carlo Perroni). Journal of Public Economics, 224 , 2023. [Journal webpage]
Housing benefits and monetary incentives to work: Simulations for France. Economie et Statistique / Economics and Statistics, 503-504, 37-59, 2019. [Master Thesis]
Renewable energy policies and private sector investment: Evidence from financial microdata (with Miguel Cardenas-Rodriguez, Ivan Hascic, Nick Johnstone & Jerome Silva). Environmental and Resource Economics, 62(1), 163-188, 2015.