IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ese/cempwp/cempa8-21.html

Assessing the cushioning effect of tax-benefit policies in the Andean region during the COVID-19 pandemic

Author

Listed:
  • Collado, Diego
  • Avellaneda, Andrés
  • Chang, Rodrigo
  • Xavier Jara Tamayo, Holguer
  • Mideros, Andrés
  • Montesdeoca, Lourdes
  • Rodríguez, David
  • Torres, Javier
  • Vanegas, Omar

Abstract

This paper aims to assess the role of tax-benefit policies in mitigating the effects of the COVID-19 crisis on the distribution of household disposable income in Colombia, Ecuador and Peru. Tax-benefit microsimulation and nowcasting techniques are used to adjust 2019 microdata to reflect the labour market and earnings situation observed in official labour force surveys collected during the pandemic. Our results show a sharp drop in household disposable income and a dramatic increase in poverty and inequality during the second quarter of 2020, with the national poverty headcount increasing by 73% in Colombia and more than doubling in Ecuador and Peru. By the end of 2020, the economy recovers but poverty and inequality remain above the pre-pandemic levels. COVID-related policies cushion the effect of the crisis at the bottom of the distribution, and their effect on poverty and inequality largely depends on the generosity of the benefits implemented. By contrast, automatic stabilisers mitigate the impact of the income shock at the top of the distribution due to the effect of social insurance contributions and personal income tax, whereas social assistance programmes in place before the pandemic fail to act as automatic stabilisers due to their design as proxy means-tested benefits.

Suggested Citation

  • Collado, Diego & Avellaneda, Andrés & Chang, Rodrigo & Xavier Jara Tamayo, Holguer & Mideros, Andrés & Montesdeoca, Lourdes & Rodríguez, David & Torres, Javier & Vanegas, Omar, 2021. "Assessing the cushioning effect of tax-benefit policies in the Andean region during the COVID-19 pandemic," Centre for Microsimulation and Policy Analysis Working Paper Series CEMPA8/21, Centre for Microsimulation and Policy Analysis at the Institute for Social and Economic Research.
    • Handle: RePEc:ese:cempwp:cempa8-21
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.iser.essex.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/files/working-papers/cempa/cempa8-21.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Olivier Bargain & Tim Callan, 2010. "Analysing the effects of tax-benefit reforms on income distribution: a decomposition approach," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 8(1), pages 1-21, March.
    2. -, 2020. "Report on the economic impact of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) on Latin America and the Caribbean," Libros y Documentos Institucionales, Naciones Unidas Comisión Económica para América Latina y el Caribe (CEPAL), number 45603 edited by Cepal.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Gasior, Katrin & Jara, H. Xavier & Makovec, Mattia, 2024. "Assessing the effectiveness of social protection measures in mitigating COVID-19-related income shocks in the European union," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 83(C), pages 583-605.

    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. Guido Neidhöfer & Nora Lustig & Mariano Tommasi, 2021. "Intergenerational transmission of lockdown consequences: prognosis of the longer-run persistence of COVID-19 in Latin America," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 19(3), pages 571-598, September.
    2. Alari PaulusBy & Francesco Figari & Holly Sutherland, 2017. "The design of fiscal consolidation measures in the European Union: distributional effects and implications for macro-economic recovery," Oxford Economic Papers, Oxford University Press, vol. 69(3), pages 632-654.
    3. Robin Jessen, 2019. "Why has Income Inequality in Germany Increased From 2002 to 2011? A Behavioral Microsimulation Decomposition," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 65(3), pages 540-560, September.
    4. Jinjing Li & Yogi Vidyattama & Hai Anh La & Riyana Miranti & Denisa M. Sologon, 2022. "Estimating the Impact of Covid-19 and Policy Responses on Australian Income Distribution Using Incomplete Data," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 162(1), pages 1-31, July.
    5. -, 2021. "The impact of COVID-19 on indigenous peoples in Latin America (Abya Yala): Between invisibility and collective resistance," Documentos de Proyectos 46698, Naciones Unidas Comisión Económica para América Latina y el Caribe (CEPAL).
    6. Guillaume Allegre, 2012. "Work, Family or State? From wage inequalities to standard of living inequalities and inwork poverty in a European cross-country perspective," Working Papers hal-01070340, HAL.
    7. Jinjing Li & Yogi Vidyattama & Hai Anh La & Riyana Miranti & Denisa M Sologon, 2020. "The Impact of COVID-19 and Policy Responses on Australian Income Distribution and Poverty," Papers 2009.04037, arXiv.org.
    8. Leszek Morawski & Aneta Semeniuk, 2013. "Zakres ubóstwa a reformy podatkowo-świadczeniowe w latach 2006-2010," Gospodarka Narodowa. The Polish Journal of Economics, Warsaw School of Economics, issue 4, pages 21-40.
    9. Chantreuil, Frédéric & Fourrey, Kévin & Lebon, Isabelle & Rebière, Thérèse, 2021. "Magnitude and evolution of gender and race contributions to earnings inequality across US regions," Research in Economics, Elsevier, vol. 75(1), pages 45-59.
    10. Nora Lustig & Valentina Martinez Pabon & Guido Neidhöfer & Mariano Tommasi, 2020. "Short and Long-Run Distributional Impacts of COVID-19 in Latin America," Working Papers 2013, Tulane University, Department of Economics.
    11. Doorley, Karina & Regan, Mark, 2022. "BP1: The impact of Irish budgetary policy by disability status," Papers BP2023/1, Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI).
    12. Alari Paulus & Holly Sutherland & Iva Tasseva, 2020. "Indexing Out of Poverty? Fiscal Drag and Benefit Erosion in Cross‐National Perspective," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 66(2), pages 311-333, June.
    13. Caterina Astarita & Salvador Barrios & Francesca D'Auria & Anamaria Maftei & Philipp Mohl & Matteo Salto & Marie-Luise Schmitz & Alberto Tumino & Edouard Turkisch, 2018. "Impact of fiscal policy on income distribution," Report on Public Finances in EMU, Directorate General Economic and Financial Affairs (DG ECFIN), European Commission, pages 71-131, January.
    14. Karina Doorley & Claire Keane, 2024. "Tax-benefit systems and the gender gap in income," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 22(2), pages 285-309, June.
    15. Valentinova Tasseva, Iva & Paulus, Alari, 2017. "Decomposition of changes in the EU income distribution in 2007-2011," EUROMOD Working Papers EM9/17, EUROMOD at the Institute for Social and Economic Research.
    16. Robert Darko Osei & Kwabena Adu-Ababio, 2018. "Effects of an education reform on household poverty and inequality: A microsimulation analysis on the free Senior High School policy in Ghana," WIDER Working Paper Series 147, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    17. H. Xavier Jara & David Rodríguez & Diego Collado & Javier Torres & Andrés Mideros & Lourdes Montesdeoca & Andrés Avellaneda & Rodrigo Chang & Omar Vanegas, 2025. "Assessing the role of tax‐benefit policies during the COVID‐19 pandemic: Evidence from the Andean region," Review of Development Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(1), pages 226-246, February.
    18. Jara, H. Xavier & Montesdeoca, Lourdes & Colmenarez, María Gabriela & Moreno, Lorena, 2025. "Two decades of tax-benefit reforms in Ecuador: How much have they contributed to poverty and inequality reduction?," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 190(C).
    19. Doorley, Karina & Callan, Tim & Savage, Michael, 2018. "Inequality in EU crisis countries. How effective were automatic stabilisers?," EUROMOD Working Papers EM10/18, EUROMOD at the Institute for Social and Economic Research.
    20. Ohno, Taro & Imahori, Tomotsugu & Kojima, Daizo, 2025. "Effect of income-increasing deduction in personal income tax on the burden reduction and income redistribution: Evidence from Japan," Japan and the World Economy, Elsevier, vol. 73(C).

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:ese:cempwp:cempa8-21. 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: Jonathan Nears (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/rcessuk.html .

    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.