000001418 001__ 1418 000001418 005__ 20251007025121.0 000001418 0247_ $$2doi$$a10.6082/uchicago.1418 000001418 037__ $$aTHESIS$$bDissertation 000001418 041__ $$aeng 000001418 245__ $$aEssays on Inequality, Fairness and Taxation 000001418 260__ $$bUniversity of Chicago 000001418 269__ $$a2018-12 000001418 300__ $$a166 000001418 336__ $$aDissertation 000001418 502__ $$bPh.D. 000001418 520__ $$aThis dissertation is a collection of two essays on inequality. The first chapter takes a normative approach to inequality. We start from the normative assumption that not all inequalities are unjust. In particular, we assume that public policy ought to correct inequalities that are caused by differences in skills insofar as they generate poverty but ought to remain neutral towards inequalities generated by different individual preferences over labor choices. We construct social preferences that are consistent with this view in addition to satisfying Pareto efficiency and we derive implications for the taxation of labor income. We calibrate the optimal tax formula to the US and compare it to the current tax and transfer system. One of the most striking features of the optimal tax schedule under these social preferences is the desirability of negative marginal tax rates on low-incomes. Overall, the US tax and transfer system shares many features with the tax scheme that would be designed by a planner whose objective combines reducing poverty with preference responsibility. The second chapter takes an intergenerational perspective on inequality. We measure intergenerational mobility in housing consumption - across surnames - in the US for the period 1940-2012. We translate, under stated assumptions, the figure into an estimated family-level intergenerational elasticity of total consumption of 0.6-0.67 between two successive generations. We also document that blacks have much lower IGE than whites, the Northeast has higher IGE than the South and Midwest, and in particular, the black-white gap in IGE is concentrated in the Northeast. Some of these patterns contrast with the previous literature's analysis of IGE in labor income. We discuss possible mechanisms behind the level of - and the heterogeneity in - the estimated IGE of consumption. 000001418 540__ $$a© 2018 Lancelot Henry de Frahan 000001418 650__ $$aEconomics 000001418 653__ $$aconsumption 000001418 653__ $$afairness 000001418 653__ $$ainequality 000001418 653__ $$ainterpersonal comparisons 000001418 653__ $$apublic finance 000001418 653__ $$ataxation 000001418 690__ $$aSocial Sciences Division 000001418 691__ $$aKenneth C. Griffin Department of Economics 000001418 7001_ $$aHenry de Frahan, Lancelot$$uUniversity of Chicago 000001418 72012 $$aMarianne Bertrand 000001418 72014 $$aMarianne Bertrand 000001418 72014 $$aStéphane Bonhomme 000001418 72014 $$aMagne Mogstad 000001418 8564_ $$90b7bb4fe-13dd-4945-94f8-796cf3b99c68$$s7516935$$uhttps://knowledge.uchicago.edu/record/1418/files/HenrydeFrahan_uchicago_0330D_14631.pdf$$ePublic 000001418 909CO $$ooai:uchicago.tind.io:1418$$pDissertations$$pGLOBAL_SET 000001418 983__ $$aDissertation