Peter Diamond is one of the world's premier economists. This path-breaking book extends the traditional theory of optimal taxation to multi-period models. But it also considers how optimal tax rules/formulas need to be modified if agents are myopic, borrowing constrained, or time inconsistent. Diamond's findings will change how we think about and design public policy toward retirement saving and life-cycle labor supply.
Laurence J. Kotlikoff, Department of Economics, Boston University
For a generation, Peter Diamond has thought more clearly and more deeply about the subject of social insurance than has any other economist. He has been a mentor to every serious scholar interested in the subject. This book confirms that he still is.
Henry J. Aaron, The Brookings Institution
