sciencesconf.org:pet2017paris2:144016 Optimal rent taxation Gregor Schwerhoff 1 , @ Ottmar Edenhofer 1, 2, 3 , @ 1 : Mercator Research Institute on Global Commons and Climate Change (MCC) - Website 2 : Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) - Website 3 : Technical University of Berlin (TU Berlin) - Website Economic rents have long been identified as an efficient base for taxation. In addition, the recent literature documents that rent yielding assets are highly concentrated among the rich. Rent taxation thus seems attractive for both efficiency and equity reasons. Nevertheless, rent taxation remains a marginal topic in academic economics and for policy makers. We suggest bridging this gap by subjecting economic rents to an optimal taxation analysis. When considering that households can be heterogeneous both with respect to their wealth and with respect to their portfolio composition (regarding shares of capital and rent yielding assets) we find that equity considerations may require rents to be taxed at less than 100\%. When the portfolio composition among households is similar, however, rent taxation is much more desirable than labor taxation under a standard social welfare function. Subject : : oral Topics : Taxation Keywords : rent taxation ; distribution ; optimal taxation