We study the impact of taxation on human capital when the mortality of household agents is endogenously determined based on their past levels of consumption. We characterize and solve the dynamic optimization problem facing household agents in the economy. Even though all households in our economy have identical preferences and have access to the same human capital accumulation technology, with endogenous mortality, there is a possibility of multiple equilibria. Households with an initial endowment of human capital above a threshold choose to accumulate human capital, while those below the threshold end up with very low levels of human capital. We use empirical estimates of the income–mortality relationship in Canada, France, and the US to simulate our model. When income has a strong protective effect against mortality, we find that multiple equilibria are empirically plausible. Our simulations suggest that changes in proportional tax rates have more than twice the impact on aggregate human capital in the endogenous mortality model compared to the infinite horizon model.

当根据家庭代理商过去的消费水平内生地确定其死亡率时，我们研究税收对人力资本的影响。我们刻画并解决了经济中家庭代理商面临的动态优化问题。即使我们经济中的所有家庭都具有相同的偏好，并且能够获得相同的人力资本积累技术，并且具有内生性的死亡率，但存在多重均衡的可能性。初始end赋资本高于阈值的家庭选择积累人力资本，而低于阈值的家庭最终拥有非常低的人力资本水平。我们使用对加拿大，法国和美国的收入与死亡率关系的经验估计来模拟我们的模型。如果收入对死亡有很强的保护作用，我们发现多重均衡在经验上是合理的。我们的模拟表明，与无限远景模型相比，内生性死亡率模型中比例税率的变化对总人力资本的影响要多两倍。