Why Are Taxes So High in Egalitarian Societies?
分析了相对收入假说，发现当消费比例影响效用时，劳动所得税可能提高所有人福利；税前工资不平等程度低的社会，所有人会一致支持高税收。
In an analysis of the relative income, or relative consumption, hypothesis, it is shown that if the ratio of agent i's consumption to agent j's consumption enters into the utility function, a tax on labor income may increase welfare for all agents. If pretax wage inequality is low, all agents will unanimously be in favor of such a tax. Thus there will be a tendency for taxes to be high in societies where pretax wage inequality is low. Copyright 1995 by The editors of the Scandinavian Journal of Economics.