IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/joecag/v24y2023ics2212828x22000585.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Public redistribution in Europe: Between generations or income groups?

Author

Listed:
  • Hammer, Bernhard
  • Christl, Michael
  • De Poli, Silvia

Abstract

Governments face a potential trade-off between provision for the population in retirement and the support of working-age households with low income. Using EUROMOD-based microdata from 28 countries, we quantify public redistribution to pensioner- and working-age households, distinguishing also by income quartiles. In general, Northern European countries are characterized by a low net redistribution between households, limited public pensions, but a strong support of low-income households. By contrast, most Southern European countries are characterized by a high net redistribution to pensioners, offering generous benefits to some, but little support for working age households with low income. Our results show that a strong public net redistribution between households is associated with generous public benefits for a portion of the retirees, but negatively related to support for the population with low income.

Suggested Citation

  • Hammer, Bernhard & Christl, Michael & De Poli, Silvia, 2023. "Public redistribution in Europe: Between generations or income groups?," The Journal of the Economics of Ageing, Elsevier, vol. 24(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:joecag:v:24:y:2023:i:c:s2212828x22000585
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jeoa.2022.100426
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2212828X22000585
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.jeoa.2022.100426?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Bernhard Hammer & Sonja Spitzer & Alexia Prskawetz, 2022. "Age-Specific Income Trends in Europe: The Role of Employment, Wages, and Social Transfers," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 162(2), pages 525-547, July.
    2. Silvia Avram & Horacio Levy & Holly Sutherland, 2014. "Income redistribution in the European Union," IZA Journal of European Labor Studies, Springer;Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit GmbH (IZA), vol. 3(1), pages 1-29, December.
    3. David K. Jesuit & Vincent A. Mahler, 2010. "Comparing Government Redistribution Across Countries: The Problem of Second-Order Effects," Social Science Quarterly, Southwestern Social Science Association, vol. 91(s1), pages 1390-1404.
    4. Shorrocks, A F, 1982. "Inequality Decomposition by Factor Components," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 50(1), pages 193-211, January.
    5. Vincent Mahler & David Jesuit, 2010. "Comparing Government Redistribution across Countries: The Problem of Second-order Effects," LIS Working papers 546, LIS Cross-National Data Center in Luxembourg.
    6. Holly Sutherland & Anil Gupta & Ann Harding, 2007. "Model 10: EUROMOD — The Tax-Benefit Microsimulation Model for the European Union," International Symposia in Economic Theory and Econometrics, in: Modelling Our Future: Population Ageing, Health and Aged Care, pages 483-488, Emerald Group Publishing Limited.
    7. Gerlinde Verbist & Francesco Figari, 2014. "The Redistributive Effect and Progressivity of Taxes Revisited: An International Comparison across the European Union," FinanzArchiv: Public Finance Analysis, Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen, vol. 70(3), pages 405-429, September.
    8. Pieter Vanhuysse & Marton Medgyesi & Robert I Gal, 2021. "Welfare states as lifecycle redistribution machines: Decomposing the roles of age and socio-economic status shows that European tax-and-benefit systems primarily redistribute across age groups," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 16(8), pages 1-18, August.
    9. Christl, Michael & Köppl–Turyna, Monika & Lorenz, Hanno & Kucsera, Dénes, 2020. "Redistribution within the tax-benefits system in Austria," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 68(C), pages 250-264.
    10. M. Collado & Iñigo Iturbe-Ormaetxe, 2010. "Public transfers to the poor: is Europe really much more generous than the United States?," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 17(6), pages 662-685, December.
    11. Rani, Uma. & Furrer, Marianne., 2016. "Decomposing income inequality into factor income components : evidence from selected G20 countries," ILO Working Papers 994934893302676, International Labour Organization.
    12. Axel Pedersen, 1994. "The Welfare State and Inequality: Still No Answers to the Big Questions," LIS Working papers 109, LIS Cross-National Data Center in Luxembourg.
    13. Louis Chauvel & Martin Schr der, 2014. "Generational Inequalities and Welfare Regimes," LIS Working papers 606, LIS Cross-National Data Center in Luxembourg.
    14. Tingyun Chen & Jean-Jacques Hallaert & Alexander Pitt & Haonan Qu & Maximilien Queyranne & Alaina Rhee & Anna Shabunina & Jérôme Vandenbussche & Irene Yackovlev, 2018. "Inequality and Poverty across Generations in the European Union," IMF Staff Discussion Notes 18/01, International Monetary Fund.
    15. Holly Sutherland & Francesco Figari, 2013. "EUROMOD: the European Union tax-benefit microsimulation model," International Journal of Microsimulation, International Microsimulation Association, vol. 1(6), pages 4-26.
    16. Koen Caminada & Kees Goudswaard & Chen Wang & Jinxian Wang, 2019. "Has the redistributive effect of social transfers and taxes changed over time across countries?," International Social Security Review, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 72(1), pages 3-31, January.
    17. Clemens Fuest & Judith Niehues & Andreas Peichl, 2010. "The Redistributive Effects of Tax Benefit Systems in the Enlarged EU," Public Finance Review, , vol. 38(4), pages 473-500, July.
    18. Rani, Uma. & Furrer, Marianne., 2016. "Decomposing income inequality into factor income components evidence from selected G20 countries," ILO Working Papers 994930893002676, International Labour Organization.
    19. David K. Jesuit & Vincent A. Mahler, 2010. "Comparing Government Redistribution Across Countries: The Problem of Second‐Order Effects," Social Science Quarterly, Southwestern Social Science Association, vol. 91(5), pages 1390-1404, December.
    20. Julia Lynch, 2001. "The Age-Orientation of Social Policy Regimes in OECD Countries," LIS Working papers 308, LIS Cross-National Data Center in Luxembourg.
    21. Holly Sutherland, 2007. "Model 10: EUROMOD — The Tax-Benefit Microsimulation Model for the European Union," International Symposia in Economic Theory and Econometrics, in: Modelling Our Future: Population Ageing, Health and Aged Care, pages 483-488, Emerald Group Publishing Limited.
    22. Tingyun Chen & Mr. Jean-Jacques Hallaert & Mr. Alexander Pitt & Mr. Haonan Qu & Mr. Maximilien Queyranne & Ms. Alaina P Rhee & Ms. Anna Shabunina & Mr. Jerome Vandenbussche & Irene Yackovlev, 2018. "Inequality and Poverty across Generations in the European Union," IMF Staff Discussion Notes 2018/001, International Monetary Fund.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Bernhard Hammer & Michael Christl & Silvia De Poli, 2020. "Redistribution across Europe: How much and to whom?," Working Papers 593, ECINEQ, Society for the Study of Economic Inequality.
    2. Koen Caminada & Kees Goudswaard & Chen Wang & Jinxian Wang, 2019. "Income Inequality and Fiscal Redistribution in 31 Countries After the Crisis," Comparative Economic Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Association for Comparative Economic Studies, vol. 61(1), pages 119-148, March.
    3. Elvire Guillaud & Matthew Olckers & Michaël Zemmour, 2020. "Four Levers of Redistribution: The Impact of Tax and Transfer Systems on Inequality Reduction," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 66(2), pages 444-466, June.
    4. IVASKAITE-TAMOSIUNE Viginta & THIEMANN Andreas, 2021. "The budgetary and redistributive impact of pension taxation in the EU: A microsimulation analysis," JRC Working Papers on Taxation & Structural Reforms 2021-08, Joint Research Centre.
    5. Orsetta Causa & Mikkel Hermansen, 2017. "Income redistribution through taxes and transfers across OECD countries," OECD Economics Department Working Papers 1453, OECD Publishing.
    6. Malte Luebker, 2014. "Income Inequality, Redistribution, and Poverty: Contrasting Rational Choice and Behavioral Perspectives," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 60(1), pages 133-154, March.
    7. Federico Podestà & Sonia Marzadro, 2017. "Operationalizing De-commodification and De-familization Outcomes via the Relative Poverty Approach: An Application to Western European Countries," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 131(2), pages 701-726, March.
    8. Cem Baslevent, 2016. "Social Transfers and Income Inequality in Turkey: How Important is the Gender Dimension?," Working Papers 1013, Economic Research Forum, revised Jun 2016.
    9. Anton I. Votinov & Samvel S. Lazaryan & Vyacheslav N. Ovchinnikov, 2019. "Regression-Based Decomposition of Income Inequality Factors in Russia," Finansovyj žhurnal — Financial Journal, Financial Research Institute, Moscow 125375, Russia, issue 5, pages 74-89, October.
    10. Nelson R. Ramírez- Rondán & Marco E. Terrones & Diego Winkelried, 2020. "Equalizing growth: The case of Peru," Working Papers 176, Peruvian Economic Association.
    11. Gerlinde Verbist & Ron Diris & Frank Vandenbroucke, 2018. "Solidarity between generations in extended families. Direction, size and intensity," Working Papers 1816, Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy, University of Antwerp.
    12. Ali T. Cem Başlevent, 2014. "Social Transfers and Income Inequality in Turkey: How Informative Is the Survey of Income and Living Conditions?," Ekonomi-tek - International Economics Journal, Turkish Economic Association, vol. 3(3), pages 23-42, September.
    13. Ivica Urban & Martina Pezer, 2020. "Compensation for Households with Children in Croatia, Slovenia and Austria," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 147(1), pages 203-235, January.
    14. Denisa M. Sologon & Philippe Kerm & Jinjing Li & Cathal O’Donoghue, 2021. "Accounting for differences in income inequality across countries: tax-benefit policy, labour market structure, returns and demographics," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 19(1), pages 13-43, March.
    15. Schaffrin, André & Reibling, Nadine, 2015. "Household energy and climate mitigation policies: Investigating energy practices in the housing sector," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 77(C), pages 1-10.
    16. Uma Rani & Jaya Krishnakumar & Maurizio Bigotta, 2017. "Accounting for income inequality: empirical evidence from India," Indian Economic Review, Springer, vol. 52(1), pages 193-229, December.
    17. Muszyńska Joanna & Oczki Jarosław & Wędrowska Ewa, 2018. "Income Inequality in Poland and the United Kingdom. Decomposition of the Theil Index," Folia Oeconomica Stetinensia, Sciendo, vol. 18(1), pages 108-122, June.
    18. Solt, Frederick, 2019. "Measuring Income Inequality Across Countries and Over Time: The Standardized World Income Inequality Database," SocArXiv mwnje, Center for Open Science.
    19. Orsetta Causa & Mikkel Hermansen, 2018. "Income Redistribution Through Taxes and Transfers across OECD Countries," LIS Working papers 729, LIS Cross-National Data Center in Luxembourg.
    20. Caroline Krafft & Elizabeth E. Davis, 2021. "The Arab inequality puzzle: the role of income sources in Egypt and Tunisia," Middle East Development Journal, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 13(1), pages 1-26, January.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:joecag:v:24:y:2023:i:c:s2212828x22000585. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.journals.elsevier.com/the-journal-of-the-economics-of-ageing .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.