The Effect of the Tax Mix on Income Distribution in Iran: An Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) Approach

The main objective of this study is to investigate the effect of changes in the tax mix on income distribution in Iran using data for the period 1361-1395. To this end, an empirical model is proposed to analyze the effects of substitution of different taxes, including income tax, corporate tax, wealth tax, goods and services tax, and import tax, on income inequality (as measured by the Gini coefficient). The results of the cointegration analysis based on the autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) approach show that (1) the substitution of income tax for corporate tax, wealth tax, or goods and services tax leads to a reduction in income inequality, (2) the substitution of corporate tax for wealth tax reduces income inequality, (3) the substitution of goods and services tax for wealth tax reduces income inequality, whereas the substitution of this type of tax for corporate tax has no statistically significant effect on income inequality, and (4) the substitution of import tax for income tax, corporate tax, wealth tax, or goods and services tax improves income distribution. These results provide a useful guide for policy makers to achieve an optimal mix of taxes aimed at reducing income inequality.