Economics serving society

May 2019

It is possible to avoiding the social injustice of environmental taxes

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Diane Aubert and Mireille Chiroleu-Assouline

Can we still argue for environmental taxes in a period of low growth, persistent unemployment and increasing inequality? Despite a growing acceptance of the necessity of reducing greenhouse gas emissions in order to fight climate change, governments are often reluctant to introduce such fiscal reforms for fear of strong public opposition...

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Should we tax inheritances according to the age of the deceased?

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Marc Fleurbaey, Marie-Louise Leroux, Pierre Pestieau, Grégory Ponthière and Stéphane Zuber

What is a fair tax on inheritances? The article revisits this question, and particularly the optimal taxation of accidental inheritance, focusing on risk over a lifetime and inequalities in longevity among the population. In France ...

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Is the growth volatility of business firms tied-up with their size?

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Flavio Calvino, Chiara Criscuolo, Carlo Menon and Angelo Secchi

Since the pioneering work of the French engineer Robert Gibrat, economists have been interested in studying the statistical properties of the size of business firms and of its evolution over time. While it is a well-known stylized fact that small and young firms tend to grow faster than larger incumbents, less research has focused on the relation between a firm’s size and its growth volatility...

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Do reform sequences affect the telecommunications sector? The example of the Middle East and North Africa

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Carlo Cambini, Riham Ahmed Ezzat and Carine Staropoli

Following pioneering American and British experiments in the 1980s, a number of countries decided to liberalise their network industries, usually starting with the telecommunications sector. The reform aimed at...