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on Unemployment, Inequality and Poverty |
| By: | Sreevidya Ayyar (London School of Economics); Uta Bolt (Institute for Fiscal Studies); Eric French (Institute for Fiscal Studies); Cormac O'Dea (Institute for Fiscal Studies) |
| Date: | 2025–02–22 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ifs:ifsewp:25/09 |
| By: | Jack Britton (Institute for Fiscal Studies); Nick Ridpath (Institute for Fiscal Studies); Carmen Villa (Institute for Fiscal Studies); Ben Waltmann (Institute for Fiscal Studies) |
| Date: | 2025–02–26 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ifs:ifsewp:25/06 |
| By: | Fenske, James (University of Warwick); Gupta, Bishnupriya (University of Warwick); Mukhopadhyay, Anwesh (University of Warwick) |
| Abstract: | We review the present-day impacts of colonial rule on former colonies. Persistence exists because of multiple equilibria, path dependence, institutions, culture, knowledge, and technology. Empirical work in this literature primarily uses tools from applied econometrics, though best practices are needed to overcome the limitations of these tools. Colonial interventions relating to institutions, infrastructure, land, forced labour, the slave trade, and human capital all have measurable impacts in the present. And yet many colonial interventions have failed to persist or have led to reversals. These cases are informative about why colonial rule still matters, as are cases where precolonial influences have had persistent impacts despite, or even because of, colonial rule. |
| Keywords: | JEL Classification: |
| Date: | 2025 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cge:wacage:752 |
| By: | Jared Rubin (Chapman University) |
| Abstract: | This chapter presents a conceptual framework for understanding the interaction of religion, ideology, and politics. The framework’s key insights are: i) culture and ideology provide a shared mental framework for interpreting the world; ii) ideology is malleable, and it can be used to justify a wide set of empirical realities in a manner that is consistent with the prevailing mental framework; iii) religion is particularly adept at shaping this mental framework because it attempts to explain the unknown; iv) because co-religionists share a mental framework that depends on a (religious) interpretation of events, religions are particularly likely to be co-opted by individuals who gain a comparative advantage in religious interpretation; v) religious authorities are useful for legitimating political rule because of their comparative advantage in interpreting events as well as their platforms for creating common knowledge. The chapter concludes with several historical examples from various religions of the political and economic consequences of religious legitimation of political rule. |
| Keywords: | religion, culture, ideology, politics, political legitimacy |
| JEL: | P48 P50 Z12 |
| Date: | 2025 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:chu:wpaper:25-02 |
| By: | Dirk Krueger (University of Pennsylvania, CEPR and NBER); Chunzan Wu (Peking University) |
| Abstract: | Household consumption and welfare are more strongly associated with lifetime income, but most countries base income taxes on current income and use progressive taxes to reduce inequality and provide social insurance. Is lifetime income a better tax base for a government seeking to provide social insurance and redistribution? To answer this question, we build a quantitative life-cycle model of heterogeneous households with endogenous labor supply and idiosyncratic wage risks, and calibrate it to the U.S. economy. We document that switching to a lifetime income tax leads to a more efficient distribution of hours worked over time and across states of the world. This benefit rises with tax progressivity under a lifetime income tax, whereas the opposite is true under an annual income tax. Consequently, the optimal lifetime income tax is more progressive and achieves larger ex-ante welfare for a cohort of households than the optimal annual income tax. |
| Keywords: | Lifetime Income Tax, Progressive Taxation, Redistribution, Social Insurance. |
| JEL: | E60 H20 |
| Date: | 2025–04–02 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pen:papers:25-011 |