https://macropaperwarehouse.com/authors/danny-yagan/Danny YaganHugo -- gohugo.ioen-ushttps://macropaperwarehouse.com/papers/place-based-redistribution/https://macropaperwarehouse.com/papers/place-based-redistribution/<p><strong>Research Question</strong></p> <p>Should national governments redistribute income to residents of poor areas through place-based transfers, or should redistribution rely solely on place-blind (income-only) taxes? The longstanding view in urban economics—&ldquo;help poor people, not poor places&rdquo;—holds that place-based aid is inefficient because it channels activity to less productive locations. This paper challenges that view by formalizing the conditions under which place-based redistribution improves on purely income-based transfers, using tools from optimal tax theory embedded in a spatial equilibrium model.</p>