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Public Economics Lectures Part 1: Introduction

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O’Donoghue and Rabin 2006<br />

Studies optimal sin taxes in a model with two types of consumers:<br />

rational and those who overconsume (e.g., because of self-control<br />

problems)<br />

Can be thought of as a hybrid of Becker and Gruber-Koszegi models<br />

Key result: irrationality among a few consumers leads to substantial<br />

role for corrective taxation/subsides.<br />

For rational individuals, excess burden due to taxation is second-order<br />

(Harberger triangle).<br />

For irrational individuals, welfare gains from correction of internality is<br />

first-order (Harberger trapezoid).<br />

Therefore always optimal to have a positive tax; calibrations suggest<br />

fairly large corrective taxes<br />

<strong>Public</strong> <strong>Economics</strong> <strong>Lectures</strong> () <strong>Part</strong> 7: <strong>Public</strong> Goods and Externalities 138 / 138

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