A Characteristics Approach to Optimal Taxation: Line Drawing and Tax‐Driven Product Innovation
将最优税收理论重新表述为特征语言，研究如何根据商品的可观察特征划分税率区间，并分析由此产生的税收缺口如何激励企业引入新特征组合的商品以降低税负。
Abstract Real‐world tax legislation assigns goods to different categories of tax rates on the basis of observable characteristics, allowing the tax system to handle a constantly evolving set of available goods. We recast the theory of optimal taxation in the language of characteristics, and we show how to optimally draw lines that delineate tax‐rate regimes. Such lines are associated with notches in tax liability as a function of characteristics, creating incentives to introduce goods with new combinations of characteristics in order to reduce tax liability. With a restricted set of tax instruments, such notches are in general part of the second‐best optimal tax system.