Badel, A., Huggett, M. and Luo, W.

Taxing top earners: A human capital perspective - The Economic Journal: A journal of the Royal Economic Society - 130(629), Jul, 2020: p.1200-1225

An established view is that the revenue maximising top tax rate for the US is approximately 73%. In contrast, the revenue maximising top tax rate is approximately 49% in our quantitative human capital model. The key reason for the lower top tax rate is the presence of two new forces not captured by the model underlying the established view. These new forces are strengthened by the endogenous response of top earners’ human capital to a change in the top tax rate. – Reproduced