{"paper":{"title":"Fair Commodity Taxation","license":"http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/","headline":"In economies with multiple monopolists and correlated valuations, fair taxation mechanisms always ration goods more than unregulated monopolies and never benefit from randomization.","cross_cats":[],"primary_cat":"econ.TH","authors_text":"Daniel Luo, Eric Gao","submitted_at":"2026-04-21T03:50:42Z","abstract_excerpt":"We study economies where consumers interact independently with many monopolists. When consumer valuations over goods are correlated, correlation can distort the induced distribution of consumer surplus (information rents). We identify which shifts in the correlation structure over values make the induced distribution more or less fair, in the sense of second order stochastic dominance. We then investigate the role taxation can have on information rents, and show the tax authority never benefits from randomizing the allocation of goods. We characterize the set of mechanisms that are on the fair"},"claims":{"count":4,"items":[{"kind":"strongest_claim","text":"We characterize the set of mechanisms that are on the fairness-efficiency frontier under regularity conditions on the distribution of types. Furthermore, under these conditions all allocations on the fairness-efficiency frontier ration the good more than an unregulated monopolist. The tax authority never benefits from randomizing the allocation of goods.","source":"verdict.strongest_claim","status":"machine_extracted","claim_id":"C1","attestation":"unclaimed"},{"kind":"weakest_assumption","text":"Regularity conditions on the distribution of types are required to characterize the fairness-efficiency frontier and the rationing result; the model also assumes consumers interact independently with many monopolists and that fairness is captured by second-order stochastic dominance shifts in correlation structure.","source":"verdict.weakest_assumption","status":"machine_extracted","claim_id":"C2","attestation":"unclaimed"},{"kind":"one_line_summary","text":"In multi-monopolist settings with correlated values, optimal tax mechanisms lie on a fairness-efficiency frontier where they ration goods more than unregulated monopolists and never benefit from random allocations.","source":"verdict.one_line_summary","status":"machine_extracted","claim_id":"C3","attestation":"unclaimed"},{"kind":"headline","text":"In economies with multiple monopolists and correlated valuations, fair taxation mechanisms always ration goods more than unregulated monopolies and never benefit from randomization.","source":"verdict.pith_extraction.headline","status":"machine_extracted","claim_id":"C4","attestation":"unclaimed"}],"snapshot_sha256":"28ed4a862a8e728dcbcbb191f59583c50335f0721e483d8252b0e90bef1c8b66"},"source":{"id":"2604.19044","kind":"arxiv","version":2},"verdict":{"id":"2594b2ed-8ddc-4f0c-b3fc-85e94df94b0f","model_set":{"reader":"grok-4.3"},"created_at":"2026-05-10T01:46:21.366853Z","strongest_claim":"We characterize the set of mechanisms that are on the fairness-efficiency frontier under regularity conditions on the distribution of types. Furthermore, under these conditions all allocations on the fairness-efficiency frontier ration the good more than an unregulated monopolist. The tax authority never benefits from randomizing the allocation of goods.","one_line_summary":"In multi-monopolist settings with correlated values, optimal tax mechanisms lie on a fairness-efficiency frontier where they ration goods more than unregulated monopolists and never benefit from random allocations.","pipeline_version":"pith-pipeline@v0.9.0","weakest_assumption":"Regularity conditions on the distribution of types are required to characterize the fairness-efficiency frontier and the rationing result; the model also assumes consumers interact independently with many monopolists and that fairness is captured by second-order stochastic dominance shifts in correlation structure.","pith_extraction_headline":"In economies with multiple monopolists and correlated valuations, fair taxation mechanisms always ration goods more than unregulated monopolies and never benefit from randomization."},"integrity":{"clean":true,"summary":{"advisory":0,"critical":0,"by_detector":{},"informational":0},"endpoint":"/pith/2604.19044/integrity.json","findings":[],"available":true,"detectors_run":[{"name":"doi_compliance","ran_at":"2026-05-20T03:23:56.663792Z","status":"completed","version":"1.0.0","findings_count":0}],"snapshot_sha256":"caff1ba94d38bbe3ff50867f93029374c6f123f5df32c7f711205b3595566285"},"references":{"count":0,"sample":[],"resolved_work":0,"snapshot_sha256":"258153158e38e3291e3d48162225fcdb2d5a3ed65a07baac614ab91432fd4f57","internal_anchors":0},"formal_canon":{"evidence_count":0,"snapshot_sha256":"258153158e38e3291e3d48162225fcdb2d5a3ed65a07baac614ab91432fd4f57"},"author_claims":{"count":0,"strong_count":0,"snapshot_sha256":"258153158e38e3291e3d48162225fcdb2d5a3ed65a07baac614ab91432fd4f57"},"builder_version":"pith-number-builder-2026-05-17-v1"}