Paper's abstract

Alain Trannoy, Negative Taxes and Theories of Justice
It is shown that it is not so easy to make the principle of negative tax stem from philosophical systems, whose avowed aim is not to do its panegyric. Rawls' principle of difference leaves the door open to the lack of such an instrument in a just society, not only for incentive purpose, but also due to the priority given to primary goods based on freedom. In its most recent version, Rawls' thought leans toward a version of negative tax conditioned to a participation of the individual to the work market. Concerning the insurance system devised by Dworkin, it is established, through an example, that it is compatible with any level of inequality in the current society and that states of the world may exist where the type of transfers set up using the insurance scheme increases inequalities instead of reducing them. A quick overview of the literature concerning taxation enables to show that every formula of negative tax may find its justification in a body of very specific hypotheses.

Key Words : negative tax, Rawls, Dworkin, freedom, inequality
t. 46, 2002 : p. 311-328

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