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Poverty-Decreasing Indirect Tax Reforms: Evidence from Tunisia

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Sami Bibi
Jean-Yves Duclos

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Abstract

This paper suggests a methodology to identify socially-desirable directions for poverty-alleviating tax reforms. The cost-benefit ratio of increasing any commodity-tax rate is derived from the minimization of a poverty measure subject to a revenue requirement for the government. Further, to avoid the arbitrariness of choosing a poverty line and a poverty measure, the search for a poverty-reducing tax reform is done "robustly", among other things by increasing progressively the ethical content of a pre-defined class of poverty measures. The methodology is illustrated using data from Tunisia. The results suggest that poverty could be dropped for a large class of poverty indices and a wide range of poverty lines by raising -at constant fiscal revenue- the subsidy rate on hard wheat and mixed oils and by decreasing the one on sugar and milk.

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Paper provided by CIRPEE in its series Cahiers de recherche with number 0403.

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Date of creation: 2004
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Handle: RePEc:lvl:lacicr:0403

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Related research
Keywords: Poverty alleviation; Indirect taxation; Targeting; Tunisia;

Other versions of this item:

Find related papers by JEL classification:
D12 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - Consumer Economics: Empirical Analysis
D63 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics - - - Equity, Justice, Inequality, and Other Normative Criteria and Measurement
H53 - Public Economics - - National Government Expenditures and Related Policies - - - Government Expenditures and Welfare Programs
I32 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Welfare and Poverty - - - Measurement and Analysis of Poverty
I38 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Welfare and Poverty - - - Government Programs; Provision and Effects of Welfare Programs

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References listed on IDEAS
Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:
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    Other versions:
  2. Bourguignon, F. & Fields, G., 1995. "Discontinuous Losses from Poverty, Generalized P& Measures and Optimal Transfers to the Poor," DELTA Working Papers 95-06, DELTA (Ecole normale supérieure).
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    Other versions:
  7. Diamond, P. A., 1975. "A many-person Ramsey tax rule," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 4(4), pages 335-342, November. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  8. Zheng, Buhong, 1997. " Aggregate Poverty Measures," Journal of Economic Surveys, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 11(2), pages 123-62, June. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  9. Sami Bibi & Jean-Yves Duclos, 2003. "Equity and Policy Effectiveness with Imperfect Targeting," Cahiers de recherche 0335, CIRPEE. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  10. Hagenaars, Aldi J M, 1987. "A Class of Poverty Indices," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 28(3), pages 583-607, October. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  11. King, Mervyn A., 1983. "Welfare analysis of tax reforms using household data," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 21(2), pages 183-214, July. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  12. Duclos, Jean-Yves & Makdissi, Paul & Wodon, Quentin, 2002. "Socially-Efficient Tax Reforms," Cahiers de recherche 0201, Université Laval - Département d'économique. [Downloadable!]
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  14. Ravallion, Martin & van de Walle, Dominique, 1991. "The impact on poverty of food pricing reforms: A welfare analysis for Indonesia," Journal of Policy Modeling, Elsevier, vol. 13(2), pages 281-299. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  15. Yitzhaki, Shlomo & Lewis, Jeffrey D, 1996. "Guidelines on Searching for a Dalton-Improving Tax Reform: An Illustration with Data from Indonesia," World Bank Economic Review, Oxford University Press, vol. 10(3), pages 541-62, September.
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    Other versions:
  21. Sen, Amartya K, 1976. "Poverty: An Ordinal Approach to Measurement," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 44(2), pages 219-31, March. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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Cited by:
(explanations, Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.)

  1. B. Essama-Nssah, 2007. "A poverty-focused evaluation of commodity tax options," Journal of International Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 19(8), pages 1114-1130. [Downloadable!]
  2. 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," Cahiers de recherche PMMA 2007-18, PEP-PMMA. [Downloadable!]
  3. Sami Bibi, 2005. "When is Economic Growth Pro-Poor? Evidence from Tunisia," Cahiers de recherche 0522, CIRPEE. [Downloadable!]
  4. Sami Bibi, 2006. "Growth with Equity is Better for the Poor," Cahiers de recherche 0640, CIRPEE. [Downloadable!]
  5. Essama-Nssah, B., 2008. "Assessing the redistributive effect of fiscal policy," Policy Research Working Paper Series 4592, The World Bank. [Downloadable!]
  6. Raghbendra Jha, 2007. "Fiscal Policy in Developing Countries: A Synoptic View," ASARC Working Papers 2007-01, Australian National University, Australia South Asia Research Centre. [Downloadable!]
  7. Khaldi, Raoudha & Dhraief, Mohamed Zied & Haddad, Samia & Rached, Zouhair & Padilla, Martine, 2007. "Impact of the food safety policies on the reduction of poverty in Tunisian rural areas," 106th Seminar, October 25-27, 2007, Montpellier, France 7928, European Association of Agricultural Economists. [Downloadable!]
  8. Sami Bibi & Rim Chatti, 2006. "Trade Liberalization and the Dynamics of Poverty in Tunisia: a Layered CGE Microsimulation Analysis/Libéralisation des échanges et dynamique de la pauvreté en Tunisie: Analyse avec une micro-simula," Cahiers de recherche MPIA 2006-07, PEP-MPIA. [Downloadable!]
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