Progressive Estate Taxation
构建了一个包含利他父母和异质性生产率的模型，推导出最优遗产税的两个关键性质：累进性和边际负税率，并探讨了实施方式及对教育投资等代际转移的适用性。
We present a model with altruistic parents and heterogeneous productivity. We derive two key properties for optimal estate taxation. First, the estate tax should be progressive, so that parents leaving a higher bequest face a lower net return on bequests. Second, marginal estate taxes should be negative, so that all parents face a marginal subsidy on bequests. Both properties can be implemented with a simple nonlinear tax on bequests, levied separately from the income tax. These results apply to other intergenerational transfers, such as educational investments, and are robust to endogenous fertility choices. Both estate or inheritance taxes can implement the optimal allocation, but we show that the inheritance tax has some advantages. Finally, when we impose an ad hoc constraint requiring marginal estate taxes to be nonnegative, the optimum features a zero tax up to an exemption level, and a progressive tax thereafter. (c) 2010 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology..