Question
There are two goods markets, and the government considers introducing a per-unit tax on each. For simplicity, the marginal costs of firms in both markets
There are two goods markets, and the government considers introducing a per-unit tax on each. For simplicity, the marginal costs of firms in both markets are constant, and those of the first and second goods are given by C1 and C2, respectively. Therefore, given that t1 and t2 denote the amount of tax per unit of the first and second goods, the equilibrium prices are given by p1 = C1 + t1 and p2 = C2 + t2, respectively. The government knows the utility function of the consumer in the market of the first goods, which is given as follows:
U1(x1) = (3/2)x12/3 + I1 - p1x1
where x1 and I1 denotes consumption and income. On the other hand, the government does not know the utility function of the consumer in the market of the second goods and thinks that one of the following two utility functions UL2 and UH2 takes place with probability 0.5:
UL2(x2) = 2x21/2 + IL2 - p2x2
UH2(x2) = 2x21/2 + IH2 - p2x2
where IH2 > IL2. The government needs at least R tax revenue t1x1 + t2x2. Moreover, since the government does not know the utility function of the consumer in the market of the second goods, it wants to maximize, instead of social welfare, the expectations of social welfare,W(U1, UL2, UH2):
W(U1, UL2, UH2) = 0.5W(U1, UL2) + 0.5W(U1, UH2)
where W(U1, Ui2) is the social welfare function and is given by W(U1, Ui2) = log U1 + log Ui2.
- Find consumer consumption x1(t1) of the first goods in equilibrium, consumer consumption xL2(t1) of utility function UL2, and xH2(t1) of function UH2 in the market of the second goods.
- Find the function from policy variables (t1, t2) to expected social welfare.
- Formalize the government's optimization problem(= maxW(U(x(t)))). In addition, find the Lagrange function (t1, t2, ). (Note: You need not to solve the problem.)
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