The systems of direct taxes and cash benefits in the Member States of the European Union vary considerably in size and structure. We explore their direct impacts on cross-sectional income inequality (termed redistributive effect for the purpose of this paper) using EUROMOD, a tax-benefit microsimulation model for the European Union. This relies on harmonised household micro-data representative of each national population together with simulations of entitlements to cash benefits and liabilities for taxes and social contributions. It allows us to draw a more comprehensive - and comparable - picture of the combined effects of transfers and taxes than is usually possible. We decompose the redistributive effect of tax-benefit systems to assess and compare the effectiveness of individual policies at reducing income disparities. The following categories of benefits and taxes are considered both individually and in combination: income taxes, social contributions, cash benefits designed to target the poor or redistribute inter-personally (through means-testing) as well as cash benefits intended to redistribute intra-personally across the lifecycle (through social insurance or contingency-based entitlement). We derive results for the 15 old members of the European Union and present them for each country separately as well as for the EU-15 as a whole. JEL: C81, D31, H22, H55 Keywords: Income inequality, Redistribution, Microsimulation, European Union
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Paper provided by EUROMOD at the Institute for Social and Economic Research in its series EUROMOD Working Papers with number
EM9/05.
Length: Date of creation: 01 Jul 2005 Date of revision: Handle: RePEc:ese:emodwp:em9/05
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Find related papers by JEL classification: C81 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Data Collection and Data Estimation Methodology; Computer Programs - - - Microeconomic Data D31 - Microeconomics - - Distribution - - - Personal Income and Wealth Distribution H22 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Incidence H55 - Public Economics - - National Government Expenditures and Related Policies - - - Social Security and Public Pensions
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