Jonathan Goupille-Lebret

Research:

Working Papers:

Updated 2024: Tax Design, Information, and Elasticities: Evidence From the French Wealth Tax, with Bertrand Garbinti, Mathilde Munoz, Stefanie Stantcheva and Gabriel Zucman, CEPR DP18206, 2023. Revisions Requested by Review of Economic Studies.

       Abstract: Using exhaustive administrative wealth and income tax data, we study a French wealth tax reform that scaled back information reporting requirements below a certain wealth threshold. We develop a dynamic bunching approach that permits estimating the average response to the reform, the share of compliers, and the LATE. Reported wealth declines sharply in response to the reform and annual wealth growth rates are on average 20% lower among affected taxpayers. This decline appears due to increased evasion facilitated by the lower reporting requirements, as suggested by the fall in self-reported wealth but the lack of response in third-party-reported labor and capital incomes. By contrast, the elasticities to tax rates estimated are very small and insignificant. This illustrates the critical role of information reporting policies in shaping taxpayers’ behavior.

 Updated 2025: Unpacking Rising Inequality: The roles of Markups, Taxes, and Asset Prices, with Stephane Auray, Aurelien Eyquem and Bertrand Garbinti, CEPR DP20431, 2025. Revised and Resubmit to the Journal of the European Economic Association.

        Abstract: We study the dynamics of income and wealth inequality using a heterogeneous-agent model that combines endogenous portfolio choice, a granular representation of the tax-andtransfer system, and a reduced-form mechanism linking markups to top incomes through entrepreneurial risk. Driven by changes in taxation, markups, and asset prices, the model accounts for the observed trends in income and wealth inequality in France since 1984, up to the top 1% income and wealth shares. We combine counterfactual simulations with a simple accounting decomposition of wealth accumulation to assess the contributions of these driving forces to inequality dynamics and to identify the channels through which they operate. We identify rising markups as the primary driver of income inequality, while all three forces – taxation, markups, and asset prices – contribute significantly to wealth inequality. Our findings highlight both the mechanical impact of differential asset price movements and the central role of endogenous saving responses in shaping wealth inequality over time.

Publications:

• Predistribution vs. Redistribution: Evidence from France and the U.S., with Antoine Bozio, Bertrand Garbinti, Malka Guillot, and Thomas Piketty. AEJ: Applied Economics, 2024, vol. 16(2), pages 31-65.  Appendix

 Abstract: We construct series of post-tax income for France over the 1900-2018 period and compare them with U.S. series. We quantify the extent of redistribution and estimate the impact of redistribution vs pretax inequality on post-tax inequality. We obtain three major findings. First, redistribution has increased in both countries to reach similar levels today. Second, the long-run decline in post-tax inequality in France is due mostly to the fall in pretax inequality. Third, the relative lower post-tax inequality in France is entirely explained by differences in pretax inequality. This suggests that more attention should be paid to policies affecting pretax inequality. [Old 2018 WP] 

• Accounting for Wealth Inequality Dynamics: Methods, Estimates and Simulations for France, with Bertrand Garbinti and Thomas Piketty. Journal of the European Economic Association, 2021, vol. 19(1), pages 620-663. Abstract.  Appendix

• Behavioral Responses to Inheritance Tax: Evidence from Notches in France, with Arturo Infante, Journal of Public Economics, 2018, 168: 21-34. Abstract.

• Income Inequality in France, 1900-2014: Evidence from Distributional National Accounts (DINA), with Bertrand Garbinti and Thomas Piketty, Journal of Public Economics, 2018, 162: 63-77. Abstract. Appendix.

Articles in French:

• Inégalités de revenu et de patrimoine: modèles, données et perspectives croisées, avec Stephane Auray, Aurelien Eyquem and Bertrand Garbinti, Revue française d'économie, 2024/1 (Volume XXXIX), p. 81-124.

• Inégalités de revenus et de richesse en France : Evolutions et liens sur longue période, avec Bertrand Garbinti, Economie et Statistique/Economics and Statistics, 2019, 510-511-512, 69–87. [English version]

• Combien ont coûté les réformes de l’impôt sur les successions mises en place en France depuis 2000 ?, [Inheritance tax reforms in France: How much did they cost since 2000?], Revue économique, 2016, 67(4), p. 913-936.

• Impact des droits de succession sur le comportement d'accumulation du patrimoine, avec Arturo Infante, Revue française d'économie, 2016/1 (Volume XXXI), p. 187-206.

Other:

•  Distributional National Accounts Guidelines, Methods and Concepts Used in the World Inequality Database, with Facundo Alvaredo, Anthony B. Atkinson, Thomas Blanchet, Lucas Chancel, Luis Bauluz, Matthew Fisher-Post, Ignacio Flores, Bertrand Garbinti, Clara Martínez-Toledano, Marc Morgan, Theresa Neef, Thomas Piketty, Anne-Sophie Robilliard, Emmanuel Saez, Li Yang and Gabriel Zucman, PSE Research report, 2020

• Applying Generalized Pareto Curves to Inequality Analysis, with Thomas Blanchet, Bertrand Garbinti and Clara Martinez Toledano, American Economic Association Papers and Proceedings, 2018, 108: 114–118. Abstract.

• The Impact of Inheritance and Transfer Taxation on Economic Behaviors and Inequality: a Literature Review for France, with Bertrand Garbinti, Ifo DICE Report 2/2018 (June): 13-18, 2018. 

Dissemination of scientific knowledge:

in English:

• The Importance of Information for Tax Design, VoxEU, with Bertrand Garbinti, Mathilde Munoz, Stefanie Stantcheva, and Gabriel Zucman, 2025.

• Predistribution vs. Redistribution: Evidence from France and the U.S., VoxEU, with Antoine, Bozio, Bertrand Garbinti, Malka Guillot and Thomas Piketty, 2020.

• Income inequality in France: Economic growth and the gender gap, VoxEU, with Bertrand Garbinti and Thomas Piketty, 2018.

• The evolution of wealth inequality in France from 1800 to 2014, Rue de la Banque, 2018, with Bertrand Garbinti. 

in French:

• Les raisons de la hausse des inégalités depuis les années 1980, Questions internationales, n° 121, 2023, avec Bertrand Garbinti

• Trois decennies d’inégalités et de redistribution en France (1990-2018), Note WIL-IPP, 2018, avec Antoine Bozio , Bertrand Garbinti, Malka Guillot et Thomas Piketty. 

• Inégalités de patrimoine en France : quelles évolutions de 1800 à 2014 ?, Rue de la Banque, Variances, 2018, avec Bertrand Garbinti.

• Inégalité de revenus et de patrimoine : l’envolée récente des très hauts patrimoines et revenus, avec Bertrand Garbinti, Cahier Français, No. 400, 2017.

• Budget 2013 : la réforme de l’impôt sur le revenu, [French Budget 2013: Income Tax Reform], avec Antoine Bozio, Brice Fabre et Quentin Laffeter, Note IPP, No. 2, octobre 2012.

• Fiscalité et redistribution en France, 1997-2012, [TAXIPP analyses 15 years of tax policies in France], avec Antoine Bozio, Roy Dauvergne, Brice Fabre et Olivier Meslin, Rapport IPP, No. 1, mars 2012.

Co-organizer of the workshops EconNomicSday at "ENS de Lyon"

https://en.economics-ens-lyon.com/workshops-economicsday