This paper reviews recent advances in the theory of optimal policy in a dynamic Mirrlees
setting, and contrasts this approach to the one based on the representative-agent Ramsey …

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 …

We explore steady-state inequality in an intergenerational model with altruistically linked
individuals who experience privately observed taste shocks. When the welfare function …

We study the provision of dynamic incentives to self‐interested politicians who control the
allocation of resources in the context of the standard neoclassical growth model. Citizens …

We provide a simple framework for comparing market allocations with government-regulated
allocations. Governments can collect information about individuals' types and enforce …

This paper is about a now classic question in macroeconomics and public finance. A
government needs to finance an exogenously given stochastic process of purchases. How …

To what degree should societies allow inequality to be inherited? What role should estate
taxation play in shaping the intergenerational transmission of welfare? We explore these …

We study the optimal Mirrlees taxation problem in a dynamic economy with idiosyncratic
(productivity or preference) shocks. In contrast to the standard approach, which implicitly …

This paper considers optimal social insurance in a dynamic moral hazard economy. The
existing literature has focussed on environments in which a planner and a population of …

A (possibly time-and state-contingent) strategy is said to be time inconsistent if an agent
finds it optimal from the point of view of some initial period 0 but finds it suboptimal in some …