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The inequality effects of a dual income tax system

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The overall inequality effects of a dual income tax (DIT) system, combining progressive taxation of labor income with proportional taxation of income from capital, are investigated. Simple examples show that correlations between distributions of wage and capital income, the degree of tax rate differentiation in the DIT, and reranking of tax-payers can be expected to complicate the analysis. We trace out what can be said definitively, obtaining sufficient conditions for unambiguous inequality reduction and identifying the nature of the implicit redistribution between labor and capital income which is involved, with the help of Norwegian income tax data.

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  • Peter J. Lambert & Thor O. Thoresen, 2011. "The inequality effects of a dual income tax system," Discussion Papers 663, Statistics Norway, Research Department.
    • Handle: RePEc:ssb:dispap:663
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    Cited by:

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    2. Chih-Wen Mao, 2016. "Growth, income inequality, and capital income taxes: evidence from a seemingly unrelated regression model on panel data," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 36(3), pages 1463-1478.
    3. Carlos Díaz Caro & Jorge Onrubia Fernández & Jesús Pérez Mayo, 2013. "Progresividad y redistribución por fuentes de renta en el IRPF dual," Hacienda Pública Española / Review of Public Economics, IEF, vol. 206(3), pages 57-87, September.
    4. Lambert Peter J. & Thoresen Thor O., 2012. "The Inequality Effects of a Dual Income Tax System," The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 12(1), pages 1-17, July.
    5. Carlos Díaz-Caro & Jorge Onrubia, 2019. "How Did the ‘Dualization’ of the Spanish Income Tax Affect Horizontal Equity? Assessing its Impact Using Copula Functions," Hacienda Pública Española / Review of Public Economics, IEF, vol. 231(4), pages 81-124, December.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Personal income tax; dual income tax; redistributive effect;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D31 - Microeconomics - - Distribution - - - Personal Income and Wealth Distribution
    • D63 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics - - - Equity, Justice, Inequality, and Other Normative Criteria and Measurement
    • H31 - Public Economics - - Fiscal Policies and Behavior of Economic Agents - - - Household

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