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Social Welfare Effects of Progressive Income Taxation under Increasing Inequality

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  • Saša Ranđelović
  • Marko Vladisavljević

Abstract

During the 2008 economic crisis, labour market inactivity, unemployment and work informality in Serbia rose substantially, triggering a salient increase in Gini-measured inequality (by 4.3 pp), while income tax progressivity remained very low. Using the micro-simulation and utility function estimation techniques on 2007 and 2012 household survey data for Serbia, we compare the social welfare effects of a hypothetical shift from flat to progressive taxation, before and after the crisis. We find that a shift from flat to progressive tax and the consequent behavioural response lead to a reduction in inequality, a rise in total labour supply and an increase in the overall social welfare in both years. Although the decrease in inequality is higher in 2012, the overall welfare effects are slightly larger in 2007, due to the stronger labour supply response and the stronger disutility of work found in the latter year. This may suggest that a rise in inequality does not per se create a stronger case for progressive taxation, as the welfare effects are considerably driven by the structure of income-leisure preferences.

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  • Saša Ranđelović & Marko Vladisavljević, 2020. "Social Welfare Effects of Progressive Income Taxation under Increasing Inequality," Prague Economic Papers, Prague University of Economics and Business, vol. 2020(5), pages 575-599.
    • Handle: RePEc:prg:jnlpep:v:2020:y:2020:i:5:id:750:p:575-599
    DOI: 10.18267/j.pep.750
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    1. Mladen Stamenković, 2023. "Where Did All The Papers Go? A Bibliometric Overview Of Publications In Economics From Serbia," Economic Annals, Faculty of Economics and Business, University of Belgrade, vol. 68(236), pages 29-50, January –.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Optimal income taxation; tax progressivity; inequality; labour supply; social welfare;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • H21 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Efficiency; Optimal Taxation
    • H24 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Personal Income and Other Nonbusiness Taxes and Subsidies
    • J22 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Time Allocation and Labor Supply

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