Time Is, Time Was: Evaluating the Use of the Life Cycle Model as a Fiscal Policy Tool

Authors

Daniel N. Shaviro, New York University School of LawFollow

Files

Description

What time periods should we use in tax and other fiscal policy to evaluate people's circumstances, and thus to determine either how they are being treated, or how they ought to be? This question is both fundamental and pervasive. This chapter provides a critique of the standard life-cycle model. The analysis reveals that there is no simple answer to the question of how lifetimes, as opposed to shorter periods (themselves requiring further definition) should be used in measuring economic inequality, fiscal progressivity, or the question of why (and how much) inequality matters. Perhaps more important than any particular conclusion is the need for continuing methodological humility and agnosticism in how we think about these issues.

First Page

232

DOI

https://doi.org/10.4337/9781035316762.00019

Source Publication

Research Handbook on Law and Time

Source Editors/Authors

Frank Fagan, Saul Levmore

Publication Date

3-25-2025

Publisher

Edward Elgar Publishing

Recommended Citation

Daniel N. Shaviro, Time Is, Time Was: Evaluating the Use of the Life Cycle Model as a Fiscal Policy Tool, Research Handbook on Law and Time 232 (2025).
Available at: https://gretchen.law.nyu.edu/fac-chapt/2135