西方最优商品税理论研究综述与评析——兼论统一抑或差别

Review and Evaluation of the Western Research on Optimal Commodity Tax Theories

"统一抑或差别"是理论经济学家和公共财政政策制定者之间长期争论的主题。文章以这一主题为线索介绍西方学者有关最优商品税理论研究的最新进展,认为最优商品税理论对于政策制定者而言,不仅具有重要的理论参考价值,而且还可以有助于在理论研究与具体政策建议之间架起交流的桥梁,特别是考虑家户生产的最新研究进展从定性和定量两个层面都能对合理设计以及实施差别税率的最优商品税制提供有用的政策依据和建议。

Unification or isolation is an eternal theme to which theoretical economists and makers of public financial policies often disagree. With this theme as a clue, the paper presents the latest development of the western research on optimal commodity tax theories. It holds that optimal commodity tax theories have important theoretical values to the policy makers while they also bridge between the theoretical research and the specific proposals. The latest research on domestic production, qualitatively and quantitatively, supplies useful suggestions and policy bases for the reasonable design and implementation of the optimal commodity taxation system with differential tariff.