Public Economics in Action: The Basic Income/Flat Tax Proposal
Mar 1995 · Clarendon Press
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About this ebook
This book surveys recent developments in public economics by taking as a case-study the proposals for a basic income/flat tax scheme. It discusses various approaches to taxation and presents a framework for a system that would affect both personal income and the social security system, replacing the one by a flat-rate income tax and the other by a guaranteed income. This idea has generated wide interest in a number of countries, and is being actively discussed by several political parties. This book explains how these changes would benefit a wide variety of social groups, leading to a greater redistribution of income. At the same time, it also raises the question of whether a single reform can meet the very different objectives of different supporters. The author reviews different areas of public economics in which there has been active research in recent years-- namely the theory of optimum taxation, public choice theory, general equilibrium analysis of incidence, numerical tax- benefit modelling, and econometric studies of work incentives--and asks how these contribute to our understanding of this particular policy reform. He also indicates the promising directions for future research. The author does not argue for or against the basic income/flat tax proposal, but believes it should be on the agenda for any serious discussion of tax and social security reform for the twenty-first century.
About the author
Anthony Barnes Atkinson was born in Caerleon, United Kingdom on September 4, 1944. He received a bachelor's degree in 1966 from Churchill College, Cambridge. He was a fellow at St. John's College, Cambridge, from 1967 to 1971, a professor of economics at the University of Essex from 1971 to 1976, and a professor of political economy at University College, London, from 1976 to 1979. He taught at the London School of Economics from 1980 to 1992. He then returned to Cambridge, where he taught for two years, before moving to Nuffield College, where he taught from 1994 to 2005. As an economist, he studied the changes in the distribution of wealth and income, which allowed for a better understanding of poverty and inequality. He along with other scholars organized the World Wealth and Income Database, a resource for the comparative study of inequality. He wrote more than 40 books including The Distribution of Personal Wealth in Britain written with A. J. Harrison, Lectures on Public Economics written with Joseph E. Stiglitz, and Inequality: What Can Be Done? He died from myeloma on January 1, 2017 at the age of 72.
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