Skip to Main Content
HBS Home
  • About
  • Academic Programs
  • Alumni
  • Faculty & Research
  • Baker Library
  • Giving
  • Harvard Business Review
  • Initiatives
  • News
  • Recruit
  • Map / Directions
Faculty & Research
  • Faculty
  • Research
  • Featured Topics
  • Academic Units
  • …→
  • Harvard Business School→
  • Faculty & Research→
Publications
Publications
  • June 2020
  • Article
  • Fiscal Studies: The Journal of Applied Public Economics

Understanding Different Approaches to Benefit-Based Taxation

By: Robert Scherf and Matthew C. Weinzierl
  • Format:Print
ShareBar

Abstract

The normative principle of benefit-based taxation has exerted substantial influence on many areas of public finance, but it has been largely set aside in the modern theoretical approach to optimal income taxation, where welfarist objectives dominate. A prerequisite for that gap to close is the clarification of what benefit-based income taxation would mean, specifically in a first-best setting. This paper seeks to provide clear, accessible descriptions and novel graphical representations of four major approaches to first-best benefit-based taxation, explain how these approaches relate to each other, and apply them within the Classical Benefit-Based framework for optimal income taxation of Smith (1776).

Keywords

Benefit-based Taxation; Public Goods; Lindahl; Optimal Taxation; Taxation

Citation

Scherf, Robert, and Matthew C. Weinzierl. "Understanding Different Approaches to Benefit-Based Taxation." Fiscal Studies: The Journal of Applied Public Economics 41, no. 2 (June 2020): 385–410. (Also Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 19-070, August 2019. (Revised January 2019), and NBER Working Paper Series, No. 26276, September 2019.)
  • Find it at Harvard
  • Read Now

About The Author

Matthew C. Weinzierl

Business, Government and the International Economy
→More Publications

More from the Authors

    • December 2020
    • Faculty Research

    Made In Space, Expectations Management, and the Business of In-Space Manufacturing

    By: Matthew C. Weinzierl and Mehak Sarang
    • 2020
    • Faculty Research

    Designing, Not Checking, for Policy Robustness: An Example with Optimal Taxation

    By: Benjami Lockwood, Afras Y. Sial and Matthew C. Weinzierl
    • April 2020 (Revised June 2020)
    • Faculty Research

    SpaceX, Economies of Scale, and a Revolution in Space Access

    By: Matthew C. Weinzierl, Kylie Lucas and Mehak Sarang
More from the Authors
  • Made In Space, Expectations Management, and the Business of In-Space Manufacturing By: Matthew C. Weinzierl and Mehak Sarang
  • Designing, Not Checking, for Policy Robustness: An Example with Optimal Taxation By: Benjami Lockwood, Afras Y. Sial and Matthew C. Weinzierl
  • SpaceX, Economies of Scale, and a Revolution in Space Access By: Matthew C. Weinzierl, Kylie Lucas and Mehak Sarang
ǁ
Campus Map
Harvard Business School
Soldiers Field
Boston, MA 02163
→Map & Directions
→More Contact Information
  • Make a Gift
  • Site Map
  • Jobs
  • Harvard University
  • Trademarks
  • Policies
  • Digital Accessibility
Copyright © President & Fellows of Harvard College