Redistributive Tax and Growth in a Model with Discrete Occupation choice

Abstract

An optimal redistributive tax-subsidy formula is derived for a growth model where inequality is endogenously driven by an adult's choice of occupation between work and management. The human capital or knowledge is the only engine of growth and there is externality associated with human capital B la Lucas (1988) and Romer (1990). How much available knowledge would be exploited in the economy depends on the proportion of innovators who are called managers in our model. A redistributive tax reform directly impacts this proportion of managers by influencing the occupational choice. A growth maximizing redistributive scheme involves an educational subsidy to the innovators financed by taxing workers. Such an optimal educational subsidy is, however, path dependent. An economy with excessively high proportion of managers warrants lesser educational subsidy.