Workforce or workfare? The optimal use of work requirements when labour is supplied along the extensive margin
研究了当劳动力供给沿广延边际（是否工作）变化时，政府如何最优使用工作要求（workfare）作为税收组合的一部分，发现工作要求与劳动所得税抵免存在冲突，且在最优非线性所得税下，无生产力的工作要求通常非最优。
Abstract This paper explores the use of workfare as part of a tax mix when labour supply responses are along the extensive margin. In an economy where the government has a priori chosen any tax‐and‐benefit schedule, we show that, despite their common goal of providing additional incentives for individuals to enter the labour force, workfare and an earned income tax credit are at odds with each other. We also show that, in the presence of an optimal nonlinear income tax, introducing unproductive workfare is always suboptimal when individuals face the same disutility of being on workfare. When this disutility is heterogeneous, unproductive workfare may be a useful policy tool.