Why does this make me laugh? It's from that commercial working paper abstracting service that most PEN-Lers seem to hate. Note there's a fee for this paper. Though a few of these are now distributed from web sites, an increasing number of working papers now come with a fee. No doubt this service has encouraged charging for WPs. MIT's fees start at $12. > "The Democratic Political Economy of Progressive Income > Taxation" > > BY: JOHN E. ROEMER > University of California, Davis > > Paper ID: UC Davis Working Paper #97-11 > Date: March 1997 > > Contact: Donna Wills Raymond > E-Mail: MAILTO:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > Postal: Department of Economics, University of > California, Davis, CA 95616-8578 > Phone: (916) 752-9240 > Fax: (916) 752-9382 > ERN Ref: PUBLIC:WPS97-154 > > HARD COPY PAPER REQUESTS: Papers are $3.00 in the U.S. and > Canada, $4.00 outside of the U.S. Checks must be payable to > "Regents of the University of California" and drawn on > U.S. banks. We do not invoice, accept purchase orders, or > cash. Requests must be accompanied by payment and mailed > to Donna Wills Raymond at the Department of Economics, > University of California, Davis, CA 95616. > > > Why do both left and right political parties almost always > propose progressive income taxation schemes in political > competition? Analysis of this problem has been hindered by > the two-dimensionality of the issue space. To give parties a > choice over a domain which contains both progressive and > regressive policies requires an issue space that is at least > two-dimensional. Nash equilibrium between two parties with > (complete) preferences over two-dimensional policies fails to > exist. I introduce a new equilibrium concept for political > games, based on inner-party struggle. A party consists of > three factions--reformists, militants, and opportunists: each > faction has a complete preference order on policy space, but > together they can only agree on a partial order. Inner-party > unity equilibrium is defined as Nash equilibrium between two > parties, each of which maximizes with respect to its quasi- > order. Such equilibria exist in the two-dimensional model, > and in them both parties propose progressive income taxation. > > JEL Classification: D72, H20 Doug -- Doug Henwood Left Business Observer 250 W 85 St New York NY 10024-3217 USA +1-212-874-4020 voice +1-212-874-3137 fax email: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> web: <http://www.panix.com/~dhenwood/LBO_home.html>
