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The effect of tax-benefit changes on the income distribution in EU countries since the beginning of the economic crisis

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  • Valentinova Tasseva, Iva
  • De Agostini, Paola
  • Paulus, Alari
  • Sutherland, Holly

Abstract

We compare the distributional effects of policy changes introduced in the period 2008-2013 in twelve EU countries using the EU microsimulation model EUROMOD. The countries, Germany, Estonia, Ireland, Greece, Spain, France, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Portugal, Romania and the UK, chose different policy mixes to achieve varying degrees of fiscal consolidation or expansion. We find that comparisons of the size and distributional effects of policy changes over time are sensitive to the counterfactual assumption that is adopted in adjusting 2008 policies for changes in prices and incomes over the period. Nevertheless, it is clear that the direct tax, public pension and cash benefit changes had broadly progressive effects across the pre-policy change income distributions, except in Germany, Estonia and Lithuania. Including increases in VAT alters the comparative picture by making the policy packages appear more regressive, to varying extents. The paper also explores the implications of the policy changes for measures of risk of poverty and examines the incidence of the changes by age.

Suggested Citation

  • Valentinova Tasseva, Iva & De Agostini, Paola & Paulus, Alari & Sutherland, Holly, 2014. "The effect of tax-benefit changes on the income distribution in EU countries since the beginning of the economic crisis," EUROMOD Working Papers EM9/14, EUROMOD at the Institute for Social and Economic Research.
    • Handle: RePEc:ese:emodwp:em9-14
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    10. John Hills & Alari Paulus & Holly Sutherland & Iva Tasseva, 2014. "A lost decade? Decomposing the effect of 2001-11 tax-benefit policy changes on the income distribution in EU countries," ImPRovE Working Papers 14/03, Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy, University of Antwerp.
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    Cited by:

    1. Libor Dušek & Klára Kalíšková & Daniel Münich, 2015. "The Poor or the Kids? Distributional Impacts of Taxes and Benefits Among Czech Households," Prague Economic Papers, Prague University of Economics and Business, vol. 2015(5), pages 602-617.
    2. Francisco Martí & Javier J. Pérez, 2015. "Spanish Public Finances through the Financial Crisis," Fiscal Studies, Institute for Fiscal Studies, vol. 36, pages 527-554, December.
    3. Michał Brzeziński, 2015. "Inequality of opportunity in Europe before and after the Great Recession," Working Papers 2015-02, Faculty of Economic Sciences, University of Warsaw.
    4. 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.
    5. Eva Militaru & Madalina Ecaterina Popescu & Amalia Cristescu & Maria Denisa Vasilescu, 2019. "Assessing Minimum Wage Policy Implications upon Income Inequalities. The Case of Romania," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(9), pages 1-20, May.
    6. 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.
    7. Callan, Tim & Keane, Claire & Regan, Mark, 2019. "Assessing the distributional impact of budgetary policy: the role of benchmarks and indexation," Papers BP2020/2, Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI).
    8. Popova, Daria & Avram, Silvia & Rastrigina, Olga, 2016. "Accounting for gender differences in the distributional effects of tax and benefit policy changes," EUROMOD Working Papers EM7/16, EUROMOD at the Institute for Social and Economic Research.
    9. Nolan, Brian & Richiardi, Matteo & Valenzuela, Luis, 2018. "The Drivers of Inequality in Rich Countries," INET Oxford Working Papers 2018-15, Institute for New Economic Thinking at the Oxford Martin School, University of Oxford.
    10. Valentinova Tasseva, Iva & De Agostini, Paola & Paulus, Alari, 2015. "The effect of tax-benefit changes on the income distribution in 2008-2014," EUROMOD Working Papers EM11/15, EUROMOD at the Institute for Social and Economic Research.
    11. Venelin Boshnakov, 2017. "How much is the bill? Simulating selected proposals for income policy adjustments during the 2017 Bulgarian parliamentary election campaigns," Public Sector Economics, Institute of Public Finance, vol. 41(3), pages 299-314.
    12. Jekaterina Navicke, 2020. "Driving factors behind the changes in income distribution in the Baltics: income, policy, demography," GRAPE Working Papers 44, GRAPE Group for Research in Applied Economics.
    13. Paola De Agostini & Martina Menon & Federico Perali, 2015. "Family Friendly Welfare at the National and Local Level: What Does the State Do for the Family and the Family For the State?," Working Papers 23/2015, University of Verona, Department of Economics.
    14. Lateef Akanni & Otto Lenhart & Alec Morton, "undated". "Conflicting economic policies and mental health: evidence from the UK national living wage and benefits freeze," Working Papers 22-10, University of Strathclyde Business School, Department of Economics.
    15. Koen Caminada & Jinxian Wang & Kees Goudswaard & Chen Wang, 2019. "Relative Income Poverty Rates and Poverty Alleviation via Tax/benefit Systems in 49 LIS-Countries, 1967-2016," LIS Working papers 761, LIS Cross-National Data Center in Luxembourg.
    16. Koen Caminada & Jinxian Wang & Kees Goudswaard & Chen Wang, 2017. "Income inequality and fiscal redistribution in 47 LIS-countries, 1967-2014," LIS Working papers 724, LIS Cross-National Data Center in Luxembourg.

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