Essays on the economics of top incomes taxation

Thanks to the research efforts by some of the most influential contemporary economists such as Antony Atkinson, Emmanuel Saez and Thomas Piketty, literature on the “economics of top incomes” have flourished in recent years. Newly collected data on top marginal tax rates and top income shares have indeed revived the interest on role of top income taxation in explaining countries’ economic growth and fiscal performances. This Ph.D. thesis aims at contributing to the ongoing and growing debate. The thesis is composed by three independent papers all having as a common denominator taxation on top incomes across main OECD over the last decades. Each contribution aims at adding to the existent literature by providing an original contribution of either the drivers or the effects of taxation on top incomes.