Matteo Cremonini

I am a PhD Candidate working at the intersection of Public Finance and Macroeconomics. In my research I study the macroeconomic and redistributive effects of tax policies, providing quantitative assessments of their effects and guidance for optimal policy design.
 

I am currently on the Economics Job Market 2025-2026.

JOB MARKET PAPER

Wealth tax, entrepreneurship and market power

Most of the wealthiest U.S. households are entrepreneurs earning high returns from their businesses. This paper shows how the distortionary and redistributive effects of top wealth taxation change when, beyond productivity, entrepreneurs' returns capture their firms' market power. I develop a model in which entrepreneurs accumulate wealth investing in their firm, face capital income risk, set markups increasing with firm market share. Consistently with U.S. data, wealthier entrepreneurs operate larger firms and charge higher markups. Hence, the burden of a top wealth tax falls onto the entrepreneurs imposing the largest markups, reducing the aggregate markup and raising the labor share of income accruing to poor workers. I compare the top wealth tax effects to those arising when market power heterogeneity across entrepreneurs is shut down and returns entirely reflect productivity. I impose a progressive wealth tax raising 1% of GDP on the wealthiest 1% of households. When market power heterogeneity is neglected, wage losses induced by the tax are overestimated by 1.5 pp and output losses by 1.1 pp. This is because, in the economy with markup heterogeneity, taxed entrepreneurs impose higher markups and thus exhibit lower production and capital elasticities with respect to the tax.
 

WORKING PAPERS

• Cremonini, M. "Wealth tax, entrepreneurship and market power."
• Cremonini, M. "The portfolio compositon effect of wealth taxation"
• Cremonini, M. "Optimal taxation in occupational choice models: simulations for the US economy"