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Income, Wealth, and Redistribution in a Tax Haven: Distributional National Accounts for Switzerland

Author

Listed:
  • Enea Baselgia
  • Remo Gurtner
  • Julian Koller
  • Isabel Z. Martínez
  • Isabel Z. Martínez

Abstract

This paper analyzes the composition and distribution of national income, private wealth, and the extent of redistribution in Switzerland from 2003 to 2022, combining micro tax, survey, and national accounts data. Constructing Distributional National Accounts (DINA) requires addressing two features of the Swiss setting. Switzerland is a tax haven, so we correct for cross-border profit shifting by multinationals. It is also fiscally decentralized. Lacking nationally representative tax microdata, we reweight cantonal micro tax records to match national distributions. We find that pre-tax income inequality is substantially higher than suggested by tax statistics: the top 1% income share increases by 50% once retained earnings and privileged dividends are included. Compared to previous estimates, wealth inequality is somewhat higher but shows no upward trend. The overall Swiss tax-and-transfer system is close to flat across most of the distribution, at around 45% of pre-tax income, declining to below 30% for the top 0.01%.

Suggested Citation

  • Enea Baselgia & Remo Gurtner & Julian Koller & Isabel Z. Martínez & Isabel Z. Martínez, 2026. "Income, Wealth, and Redistribution in a Tax Haven: Distributional National Accounts for Switzerland," CESifo Working Paper Series 12977, CESifo.
    • Handle: RePEc:ces:ceswps:_12977
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    Keywords

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    JEL classification:

    • E01 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - General - - - Measurement and Data on National Income and Product Accounts and Wealth; Environmental Accounts
    • D31 - Microeconomics - - Distribution - - - Personal Income and Wealth Distribution
    • H2 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue
    • H5 - Public Economics - - National Government Expenditures and Related Policies
    • H77 - Public Economics - - State and Local Government; Intergovernmental Relations - - - Intergovernmental Relations; Federalism

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