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Socially Improving Tax Reforms

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  • Jean-Yves Duclos
  • Paul Makdissi
  • Quentin Wodon

Abstract

This article proposes graphical methods to determine whether commodity tax changes are "socially improving," in the sense of improving social welfare or decreasing poverty for large classes of social welfare and poverty indices. It also shows how estimators of critical poverty lines and economic efficiency ratios can be used to characterize socially improving tax reforms. The methodology is illustrated using Mexican data. Copyright © (2008) by the Economics Department of the University of Pennsylvania and the Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association.

Suggested Citation

  • Jean-Yves Duclos & Paul Makdissi & Quentin Wodon, 2008. "Socially Improving Tax Reforms," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 49(4), pages 1505-1537, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:ier:iecrev:v:49:y:2008:i:4:p:1505-1537
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    Cited by:

    1. Luis Huesca & Abdelkrim Araar & Linda Llamas & Guy Lacroix, 2021. "The impact of tobacco tax reforms on poverty in Mexico," SN Business & Economics, Springer, vol. 1(10), pages 1-18, October.
    2. Paul Makdissi & Stéphane Mussard, 2006. "Between-Group Transfers and Poverty-Reducing Tax Reforms," Cahiers de recherche 06-23, Departement d'économique de l'École de gestion à l'Université de Sherbrooke.
    3. Dorothee Boccanfuso & Antonio Estache & Luc Savard, 2011. "The Intra-country Distributional Impact of Policies to Fight Climate Change: A Survey," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 47(1), pages 97-117.
    4. Mario Fortin & Andre Leclerc & Jean-Baptiste Nesmy, 2006. "L’impact des opérations transactionnelles sur la croissance de la productivité dans le secteur bancaire," Cahiers de recherche 06-01, Departement d'économique de l'École de gestion à l'Université de Sherbrooke.
    5. Paul Makdissi & Stéphane Mussard, 2009. "Rank-Dependent Measures of Bi-Polarization and Marginal Tax Reforms," Working Papers 09-29, LAMETA, Universtiy of Montpellier, revised Dec 2009.
    6. Jean-Yves Duclos & Paul Makdissi & Abdelkrim Araar, 2014. "Pro-poor indirect tax reforms, with an application to Mexico," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 21(1), pages 87-118, February.
    7. Makdissi Paul & Seif Edine Mohamad, 2020. "Is the Elimination of Food Subsidies the Right Policy to Address Lebanon’s Public Finance Crisis?," Review of Middle East Economics and Finance, De Gruyter, vol. 16(2), pages 1-17, August.
    8. Asma Zedini & Besma Belhadj, 2015. "A New Approach to Unidimensional Poverty Analysis: Application to the Tunisian Case," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 61(3), pages 465-476, September.
    9. Jean-Yves Duclos & Paul Makdissi & Abdelkrim Araar, 2009. "Pro-Poor Tax reforms, with an Application to Mexico," Working Papers 0907E, University of Ottawa, Department of Economics.
    10. Ajitava Raychaudhuri & Sudip Kumar Sinha & Poulomi Roy, 2007. "Is the Value Added Tax Reform in India Poverty-Improving? An Analysis of Data from Two Major States," Working Papers PMMA 2007-18, PEP-PMMA.
    11. Garcia-Diaz, Rocio & Sosa-Rub, Sandra G., 2011. "Analysis of the distributional impact of out-of-pocket health payments: Evidence from a public health insurance program for the poor in Mexico," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 30(4), pages 707-718, July.
    12. Mickaël Beaud & Thierry Blayac & Patrice Bougette & Soufiane Khoudmi & Philippe Mahenc & Stéphane Mussard, 2013. "Estimation du coût d'opportunité des fonds publics pour l'économie française," Working Papers halshs-01077141, HAL.
    13. Saikou Amadou Diallo & Paul Makdissi, 2008. "Est-ce que les subsides d'électricité diminuent la pauvreté en Guinée ?," Working Papers 0811E, University of Ottawa, Department of Economics.
    14. Higgins, Sean & Lustig, Nora, 2016. "Can a poverty-reducing and progressive tax and transfer system hurt the poor?," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 122(C), pages 63-75.
    15. Mehmet Pinar & Thanasis Stengos & Nikolas Topaloglou, 2022. "Stochastic dominance spanning and augmenting the human development index with institutional quality," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 315(1), pages 341-369, August.
    16. Paul Makdissi & Stéphane Mussard, 2008. "Analyzing the impact of indirect tax reforms on rank-dependent social welfare functions: a positional dominance approach," Social Choice and Welfare, Springer;The Society for Social Choice and Welfare, vol. 30(3), pages 385-399, April.
    17. Urakawa, Kunio & Oshio, Takashi, 2010. "Comparing marginal commodity tax reforms in Japan and Korea," Journal of Asian Economics, Elsevier, vol. 21(6), pages 579-592, December.
    18. Araar, Abdelkrim & Dissou, Yazid & Duclos, Jean-Yves, 2011. "Household incidence of pollution control policies: A robust welfare analysis using general equilibrium effects," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 61(2), pages 227-243, March.
    19. Wasiu Adekunle Are, 2012. "Poverty-Reducing Directions of Indirect Marginal Tax Reforms in Ireland," Working Papers 201230, School of Economics, University College Dublin.
    20. Sean Higgins & Nora Lustig, 2015. "Can Poverty-Reducing and Progressive Tax and Transfer System Hurt the Poor?," Commitment to Equity (CEQ) Working Paper Series 1333, Tulane University, Department of Economics.
    21. Alan Krause, 2014. "Piecewise Linear Income Tax Reforms," Discussion Papers 14/25, Department of Economics, University of York.
    22. Pinar, Mehmet & Stengos, Thanasis & Topaloglou, Nikolas, 2020. "On the construction of a feasible range of multidimensional poverty under benchmark weight uncertainty," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 281(2), pages 415-427.
    23. Alan Krause, 2012. "Nonlinear Income Tax Reforms," Discussion Papers 12/03, Department of Economics, University of York.
    24. Dorothée Boccanfuso & Antonio Estache & Luc Savard, 2008. "Distributional impact of global warming environmental policies: A survey," Cahiers de recherche 08-14, Departement d'économique de l'École de gestion à l'Université de Sherbrooke.

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    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • D12 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - Consumer Economics: Empirical Analysis
    • D63 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics - - - Equity, Justice, Inequality, and Other Normative Criteria and Measurement
    • H21 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Efficiency; Optimal Taxation
    • I32 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty - - - Measurement and Analysis of Poverty

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