Abstract:
This paper studies the optimal fiscal treatment of assisted reproductive technologies (ART) in an economy where individuals differ in their reproductive capacity (or fecundity) and in their wage. We find that the optimal ART tax policy varies with the postulated social welfare criterion. Utilitarianism redistributes only between individuals with unequal fecundity and wages but not between parents and childless individuals. To the opposite, ex post egalitarianism (which gives absolute priority to the worst-off in realized terms) redistributes from individuals with children toward those without children, and from individuals with high fecundity toward those with low fecundity, so as to compensate for both the monetary cost of ART and the disutility from involuntary childlessness resulting from unsuccessful ART investments. Under asymmetric information and in order to solve for the incentive problem, utilitarianism recommends to either tax or subsidize ART investments of low-fecundity-low-productivity individuals at the margin, depending on the degree of complementarity between fecundity and ART in the fertility technology. On the opposite, ex post egalitarianism always recommends marginal taxation of ART.
摘要:
本文研究了在个体的生殖能力(或繁殖力)和工资不同的经济中,辅助生殖技术(ART)的最佳财政待遇。我们发现,最佳的ART税收政策随假定的社会福利标准而变化。功利主义仅在繁殖力和工资不平等的个人之间重新分配,而不是在父母和无子女的个人之间重新分配。相反,事后平均主义(从实现的角度来看,平均主义绝对优先考虑最糟糕的情况)从有孩子的个人向没有孩子的人重新分配,从繁殖力高的个体到繁殖力低的个体,以补偿ART的货币成本和因ART投资失败而导致的非自愿无子女的无效性。在信息不对称下,为了解决激励问题,功利主义建议对低繁殖力低生产率个人的ART投资征税或补贴,取决于繁殖力和ART在生育技术中的互补程度。相反,事后平均主义总是建议对ART征收边际税。