Public Finance Implications of Economic Inequality
探讨了日益加剧的经济不平等对公共财政理论和实践的影响，指出年度税前收入分配数据的局限性，并分析了高不平等对政府政策设计（如最高边际税率、政策退出机制等）的启示。
This paper considers questions about the implications of rising inequality for the theory and practice of public finance. It begins by addressing fundamental reasons why the distribution of income or wealth on an annual basis before taxes and transfers offers insufficient information: (1) it does not tell us what resources are actually available to households for consumption; and (2) in providing a snapshot of the resources available to individuals of different ages at a given moment in time, without controlling for life-cycle related differences or income dynamics, it can provide a misleading estimate of the underlying degree of inequality. The paper then considers the implications of high and perhaps rising economic inequality for the design of government policy: top marginal tax rates, phase-outs of government policies for those with higher incomes, the political economy of inequality, and other subjects.