休閒外部性與最適財政政策

Abstract

消費與休閒兩者都是構成個人效用的重要因子。在研究「習慣養成（habit formation）」的文獻中，消費的內部與外部習慣皆被大量地探討，其中後者可以視為消費的一種外部性。然而卻很少研究涉及休閒的外部性──儘管它是很可能存在的。本篇論文目的在於填補這部分的文獻闕漏。我們從一個高度特化的簡單模型開始，在允許模型經濟存在休閒外部性的情況下探討其政策含義。接著我們擴充上述模型，同時允許代表性個人在休閒的選擇上存在跨期替代或跨期互補的偏好。分析結果顯示休閒的跨期偏好與休閒的外部性兩者之間的互動會影響最適稅率的景氣循環性質。

Consumption and leisure are both important components of individual utility. In the habit formation literature, both internal and external consumption habits have been widely investigated. However, when it comes to leisure externalities, little works have been done despite the fact that it is economically plausible. This paper aims to fill in this gap. A stylized simple model is constructed to allow for leisure externalities, and its policy implications are studied. A richer model with both leisure externalities and intertemporal substitution (or complementarity) is also studied, and the interaction between such intertemporal preference and externalities is found to be crucial in the determinant of the cyclical property of optimal tax.