Guidelines on Searching for a Dalton-Improving Tax Reform: An Illustration with Data from Indonesia
应用Yitzhaki和Slemrod的方法，在不指定具体社会福利函数的情况下，寻找能改善广泛社会福利函数的税制改革，并以印尼能源部门为例，发现考虑分配因素后，应增加煤油补贴、对电力征税并降低汽油税。
This article documents the search for a Dalton-improving tax and expenditure reform using a methodology developed by Yitzhaki and Slemrod (1991) and Mayshar and Yitzhaki (1995). The methodology overcomes the need to define a specific social welfare function by searching instead for reforms that improve each social welfare function belonging to a wide class of functions. The authors apply the method to the energy sector of Indonesia, ignoring distributional constraints, and find that both the subsidy on kerosene and the tax on gasoline should be reduced. But taking distributional concerns into account, the present structure of energy taxes is reasonable and the country may benefit by increasing the subsidy to kerosene, taxing electricity, and reducing the gasoline tax. These conclusions are robust to changes in the relevant parameters representing the Indonesian economy.