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Fiscal Policy, Inequality, and the Ethnic Divide in Guatemala - Working Paper 397

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  • Maynor Cabrera, Nora Lustig, and Hilcías E. Morán

Abstract

Guatemala is one of the most unequal countries in Latin America and has the highest incidence of poverty. The indigenous population is more than twice as likely to be poor than the nonindigenous group. Fiscal incidence analysis based on the 2009-2010 National Survey of Family Income and Expenditures shows that taxes and transfers do almost nothing to reduce inequality and poverty overall or along ethnic and rural-urban lines. Persistently low tax revenues are the main limiting factor. Tax revenues are not only low but also regressive. Consumption taxes are regressive enough to offset the benefits of cash transfers: poverty after taxes and cash transfers is higher than market income poverty.

Suggested Citation

  • Maynor Cabrera, Nora Lustig, and Hilcías E. Morán, 2015. "Fiscal Policy, Inequality, and the Ethnic Divide in Guatemala - Working Paper 397," Working Papers 397, Center for Global Development.
    • Handle: RePEc:cgd:wpaper:397
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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Nora Lustig, 2020. "Inequality and Social Policy in Latin America," Commitment to Equity (CEQ) Working Paper Series 94, Tulane University, Department of Economics.
    2. Songsermsawas, Tisorn & Kafle, Kashi & Winters, Paul, 2023. "Decomposing the impacts of an agricultural value chain development project by ethnicity and gender in Nepal," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 168(C).
    3. Irarrázaval, Andrés, 2020. "The fiscal origins of comparative inequality levels: an empirical and historical investigation," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 107491, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    4. Nora Lustig, 2017. "Fiscal Policy, Income Redistribution and Poverty Reduction in Low and Middle Income Countries," Commitment to Equity (CEQ) Working Paper Series 54, Tulane University, Department of Economics.
    5. Ocampo, José Antonio & Gómez-Arteaga, Natalie, 2017. "Social protection systems, redistribution and growth in Latin America," Revista CEPAL, Naciones Unidas Comisión Económica para América Latina y el Caribe (CEPAL), August.
    6. Marisa Bucheli & Maximo Rossi & Florencia Amábile, 2018. "Inequality and fiscal policies in Uruguay by race," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 16(3), pages 389-411, September.
    7. Carla Canelas & Rachel M. Gisselquist, 2017. "Human capital, labour market outcomes, and horizontal inequality in Guatemala," WIDER Working Paper Series 091, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    8. Nora Lustig, 2016. "Fiscal policy, inequality, and the poor in the developing world," WIDER Working Paper Series 164a, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    9. Luissa Vahedi & Ilana Seff & Deidi Olaya Rodriguez & Samantha McNelly & Ana Isabel Interiano Perez & Dorcas Erskine & Catherine Poulton & Lindsay Stark, 2022. "“ At the Root of COVID Grew a More Complicated Situation ”: A Qualitative Analysis of the Guatemalan Gender-Based Violence Prevention and Response System during the COVID-19 Pandemic," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(17), pages 1-15, September.
    10. Carla Canelas & Rachel M. Gisselquist, 2018. "Human capital, labour market outcomes, and horizontal inequality in Guatemala," Oxford Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 46(3), pages 378-397, July.
    11. Yan Miao & Zheng Li, 2023. "The poverty alleviation effect of transfer payments: evidence from China," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 10(1), pages 1-9, December.
    12. Nora Lustig, 2016. "Fiscal Policy, Inequality and the Poor in the Developing World," Working Papers 1612, Tulane University, Department of Economics, revised Aug 2017.
    13. Sofía Plata, 2020. "Impacto de la estructura fiscal en el tamaño de la clase media," Documentos de Trabajo (working papers) 0920, Department of Economics - dECON.
    14. Nora Lustig, 2019. "Measuring the Distributional Impact of Taxation and Public Spending: The Practice of Fiscal Incidence Analysis," Commitment to Equity (CEQ) Working Paper Series 24, Tulane University, Department of Economics.
    15. Cardoso, Guilherme & Simonato, Thiago & Freire, Debora & Domingues, Edson, 2020. "Easing the Effects of Austerity with Reforms: A regional CGE experiment on Brazilian labor productivity," Conference papers 333186, Purdue University, Center for Global Trade Analysis, Global Trade Analysis Project.
    16. Jon Jellema & Matthew Wai-Poi & Rythia Afkar, 2017. "The Distributional Impact of Fiscal Policy in Indonesia," Commitment to Equity (CEQ) Working Paper Series 40, Tulane University, Department of Economics.
    17. Nora Lustig, 2018. "Measuring the Distribution of Household Income, Consumption and Wealth: State of Play and Measurement Challenges," Working Papers 1801, Tulane University, Department of Economics.
    18. Nora Lustig, 2016. "Fiscal policy, inequality, and the poor in the developing world," WIDER Working Paper Series 164b (Revised version May, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    19. Nora Lustig, 2016. "Fiscal policy, inequality and the poor in the developing world," Working Papers 418, ECINEQ, Society for the Study of Economic Inequality.
    20. Nora Lustig, 2017. "Fiscal Policy, Income Redistribution and Poverty Reduction in Low and Middle Income Countries," Commitment to Equity (CEQ) Working Paper Series 1354, Tulane University, Department of Economics.
    21. Manuel Schechtl, 2021. "Taking from the Disadvantaged? Consumption Tax Induced Poverty Across Household Types in 11 OECD Countries," LIS Working papers 807, LIS Cross-National Data Center in Luxembourg.
    22. Andres Irarrazaval, 2022. "The Fiscal Origins of Comparative Inequality levels: An Empirical and Historical Investigation," Working Papers wp531, University of Chile, Department of Economics.
    23. Irarrázaval, Andrés, 2020. "The fiscal origins of comparative inequality levels: an empirical and historical investigation," Economic History Working Papers 107491, London School of Economics and Political Science, Department of Economic History.
    24. Vanesa Jorda & Jose M. Alonso, 2020. "What works to mitigate and reduce relative (and absolute) inequality?: A systematic review," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2020-152, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    inequality; poverty; ethnic divide; fiscal incidence; taxes; social spending; Guatemala;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D31 - Microeconomics - - Distribution - - - Personal Income and Wealth Distribution
    • H22 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Incidence
    • I14 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Health and Inequality

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