Authors:

  • N. Gregory Mankiw

Excerpt

Spreading the Wealth Around: Reflections Inspired by Joe the Plumber. N. Gregory Mankiw, March 2010, Paper. "This essay discusses the policy debate concerning optimal taxation and the distribution of income. It begins with a brief overview of trends in income inequality, the leading hypothesis to explain these trends, and the distribution of the tax burden. It then considers the framework that economists use to address the normative problem of designing tax systems. The conventional utilitarian approach is found to be wanting, as it leads to prescriptions that conflict with many individuals’ moral intuitions. The essay..." Link